- Court
- High Court of Judicature at Allahabad
- Decided
- 30 October 2023
- Case no.
- FAFO 640/1999
Judgment
Court No. - 2 Case :- FIRST APPEAL FROM ORDER No. - 640 of 1999 Appellant :- National Insurance Co. Ltd. Respondent :- Rajendra Singh And Another Counsel for Appellant :- A.K. Sinha Hon'ble Saral Srivastava,J.
¶1Heard learned counsel for the appellant and lerned counsel for the respondents.
¶2The present appeal has been filed by the appellant against the award dated 30.03199 passed by Motor Accident Claims Tribunal/Special Judge (S.C/S.T. Act), Etah in M.A.C.P. No. 341 of 1995.
¶3Challenging the aforesaid award, learned counsel for the appellant has contended that the finding of the Tribunal that appellant has failed to prove that the driver of the offending vehicle was not holding a valid driving licence is illegal and not sustainable in law inasmuch as no driving licence was filed by the claimant or owner on record, and in the absence of any driving licence on record, the appellant-insurance company could not verify the same. It is contended that burden to prove the driving licence of the driver of offending vehicle is upon the owner of the vehicle and once, he discharge that burden, the burden would shift upon the appellant. Accordingly, it is submitted that Tribunal should have given right of recovery to the appellant-insurance company.
¶4Be that as it may, the Apex Court in the case of National Insurance Company Ltd. Vs. Swaran Singh & Others, AIR 2004 SC 1531 has held that the burden to prove that driver of the offending vehicle was not holding a valid driving licence is upon the insurance company. The record reveals that the appellant-insurance company did not make any effort to get the driving licence verified and since, the controversy is concluded by the Apex Court in the case of Swaran Singh (supra), this Court does not find any merit in the submission of learned counsel for the appellant.
¶5Accordingly, present appeal lacks merit and is hereby dismissed with no order as to costs. Order Date :- 31.10.2023 NS High Court of Judicature at Allahabad
Source: High Court of Judicature at Allahabad, through the eCourts High Court services, via the Indian High Court Judgments open dataset by Dattam Labs (CC BY 4.0). Text was extracted from the official PDF and may contain conversion errors. Check the official PDF before relying on it.