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1994 DIGILAW 16 (DEL)

UNITED INDIA INSURANCE COMPANY LIMITED v. BEENA RAWAT

1994-01-07

ARUN MADAN

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ARUN MADAN ( 1 ) THE appellant-United India Insurance Co. Ltd. by way of present appeal has come before this Court against the impugned judgment and order dated 21st December, 1990 in Suit Nos. 154/84 and 156/84 both decided by the Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal, New Delhi (in short MACT) ( 2 ) THE case of the appellant company, in short, is that the vehicular accident occurred on the morning of 21st January, 1984 between one ambulance of the M. C. D. (respondent No. 8 herein) bearing registration No. DLP 5056 and the bus bearing registration No. DLP 6966 owned by one Ramesh Chander (respondent No. 6 herein ). Four applications for compensation under Section 110a of the Motor Vehicle Act, 1939 (in short MVA) were filed before the learned MACT, New Delhi against the appellant being the insurer of the bus DLP 6966, respondents 6 and 7 being owner and driver respectively, and respon- dent No. 8 being the owner of ambulance DLP 5056. Respondents 1 to 5 being the widow, children and parents of the deceased Manwar Singh. ( 3 ) BOTH the suits were clubbed together and Suit No. 154/84 was treated as the main case. In Suit No. 154/84 and Suit No. 156/84 deceased Manwar Singh Rawat was travelling as passenger in the bus which is the vehicle in question before the proceedings. Respondent No. 6, owner of the bus also contested the case but had not raised specifically averments in his written. statement as to whether the liability of the insurance company was unlimited or whether he had, paid additional premium nor he filed the original policy before the MACT. It is the case of the appellant that respondent No. 6, owner of the aforesaid erring vehicle No. DLP 6966 did not appear in the witness box to claim that the liability of the insurance company was unlimited. In the written statement filed by the insurance company, the appellant has taken a specific defence that its liability was limited. The appellant, however, despite due diligence could not file the policy before the Tribunal as the policy docket was untraceable in the office of the company. In the impugned judgment, the learned Tribunal has so opined: "though the defence was raised by the insurance company that its liability was limited. The appellant, however, despite due diligence could not file the policy before the Tribunal as the policy docket was untraceable in the office of the company. In the impugned judgment, the learned Tribunal has so opined: "though the defence was raised by the insurance company that its liability was limited. However, no evidence whatsoever have been produced by the insurance company inspite of repeated opportunity given for producing the evidence that their liability was limited. As such hold that the liability of the insurance company in this case was unlimited. " ( 4 ) THE learned counsel finally concluded that in view of the fact that no evidence was given by the appellant herein in their cases and while deciding the issue, compensation amount of Rs. 15,000. 00 based on no fault liability under Section 92-A of the MVA was awarded to the petitioners 1 and 2 being the legal heirs of the deceased towards compensation amount which had already been received by the petitioners and as such no further amount except Rs. 15,000. 00 already awarded could be given to the petitioners which amount was payable by respondent No. 1-M. C. D. and respondent No. 4-United India Insurance Company. ( 5 ) MR. Vishnu Mehra, learned counsel for the appellant has filed an application (C. M. No. 1619 of 1991) under Order XLI Rule 27 of the Code of Civil Procedure with a prayer to permit the appellant insurance company to produce the true copy of the Insurance Policy No. 40702/ 24/1/214/83 on the court record by way of additional evidence to prove that the liability of the company qua passenger was limited to the extent of Rs. 15,000. 00 (Rupees fifteen thousand only) as provided in Section 95 (2) (d) (ii) of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939. Learned Counsel for the appellant has also filed a copy of the insurance policy. In paragraph 4 of the said application which is duly supported by an affidavit, it is stated by the appellant that it has cogent reasons in support of his contention as to why he could not file the copy of the insurance policy during the course of the hearing before the Tribunal since the policy docket was not traceable in the office inspite of best efforts to locate the same. It has further been submitted in paragraph 7 of the said application the appellant has specifically averred that eventually, the file was located on Friday, 31st May, 1991 and immediately thereupon, without losing any further time, the appellant approached their counsel for preparing the grounds of appeal. ( 6 ) IN Rebuttal the learned counsel f6r the respondents has controverted the stand taken by the learned counsel for the appellant in this regard. In may view, in the interests of substantial justice it would be just fair and proper that since the appellant has already placed on record the insurance policy and has also deposited the decretal amount in terms of the order dated 11th July, 1991 of this Court, the appellant be allowed to prove the extent of the liability of the insurance in terms of the policy which has been placed on record. Learned counsel for the appellant has invited my attention to the judgment of the Supreme Court of India in the matter of National Insurance Co. Ltd. Vs. Jugal Kishore and others, ACJ 1988,270 wherein the insurance policy was neither filed before the Tribunal nor before the High Court by the insurance company inspite of exercise of due diligent and it could be located by the insurance company at the later stage and filed before the Supreme Court during the course of the hearing of the application, the apex court allowed the said policy to be taken on record. ( 7 ) LEARNED counsel for the appellant has also drawn my attention to the judgment of this Court in the matter of New India Assurance Co. Vs. Saloni, (1) 1989 ACJ 339, wherein the Court held that both the owner as well as the insurance company are required to produce the relevant material in support of the claim of their liability. He has also cited a judgment of the Madras High Court 1982 (Suppl.) ACJ 229 wherein the original policy could not be file before the Tribunal by the insurance company yet the High Court so observed that copy of the insurance policy is necessary for proper adjudication of the dispute between the parties in the appeal and, therefore, the copy of the policy would be accepted as an additional evidence under Order XLI Rule 27 (C) of the Code of Civil Procedure. ( 8 ) IN view of the aforesaid decisions, I am of the opinion that the interests of justice would be met if the matter is remanded back to the learned Tribunal on the limited question of deciding the quantam of liability of the insurance company under the policy which has since been placed on the record. ( 9 ) FROM the perusal of the record I find that the claim petition was filed on 19th July, 1984 and many years have gone by, interest of justice would be substantially met if the learned Tribunal shall dispose of the claim petition afresh as expeditiously as possible within six months from today. With the aforesaid observations, the appeal stands disposed of with Rs. 1,000. 00 as costs. Parties are directed to appear before the Tribunal on 2nd February, 1994 for obtaining necessary directions. Learned counsel for the appellant is directed to take necessary steps for effecting service on the unserved parties, namely, owner and the driver since they are not represented in this Court inspite of the fact that they were duly served on 24th February, 1992. Let the evidence of said two witnesses be now recorded by the learnedt ribunals.