The central legal point established in the judgment is that the insurance company is not liable to pay compensation for a motor vehicle accident if the owner of the vehicle was driving without a valid license, as per Section 149(2)(a)(ii) of the M.V. Act.

1. This Misc. Appeal has been filed against the judgment dated 02.12.2008 and Award dt.18.12.2008 passed by Ist Addl. District Judge-cum-Motor Vehicle Accident Tribunal, Gaya in M.A. Case No.12/1995/85/2003 whereby the learned Tribunal awarding final compensation to the tune of Rs.2 lakhs along with interest @ 8 per cent per annum from the date of filing of claim petition till its realization in favour of the respondent No.1 to 3 directed the United India Insurance company Ltd. to pay the aforesaid amount and interest thereon to the aforesaid respondents with liberty to recover the same from owner of the offending vehicle.

2. The factual matrix of the case is that Rameshwar Ravi Das was a band player. On 17.05.93 at 1 P.m., he had gone to village Mahkampur to attend the Barat party and while he was playing band along with his band party in the mean time a Tata 407 mini bus bearing registeration No.BR-2/8379 being rashly and negligently drive by its driver dashed Rameshwar Das resulting into his death on the spot. Regarding said accident, Barachatti P.S. Case No.56/93 has been instituted under Section 279, 333, 338, 304A IPC against driving of the offending vehicle. The aforesaid offending vehicle was insured by United India Insurance Co. Ltd. at the time of accident. The deceased used to earn Rs.1800/- per month from the said vocation. Due to his death in the motor vehicle accident, claimants filed M.A. Case No.12 of 1995 under Section 166 of the M.V. Act for awarding compensation to the tune of Rs.5,50,000/- along with interest @ 15 per cent per annum against the appellant and the owner of the offending vehicle. The United India Insurance Ltd. Appeared in the aforesaid case and filed written statement while the owner of the offending vehicle in spite of putting appearance in the case did not file the written statement hence the case proceeded ex.-parte against him. By filing written statement, the appellant has inter alia taken the defence that offending vehicle was being driven by its owner-cumdriver and the owner was not having valid driving licnece at the time of relevant accident. So the Insurance Company is not liable to pay any compensation to the claimants.

3. After hearing the parties and perusing the record, learned Tribunal passed the aforesaid Judgment and Award as detailed in the earlier paragraph. Being aggrieved and dissatisfied with the aforesaid judgment and Award, the United India Insurance Company Ltd. has preferred this Appeal.

4. It is submitted by learned counsel for the appellant that as the owner was himself driving the offending vehicle at the time of accident and was not having valid driving licence to drive the said vehicle at the relevant time of accident within his knowledge there is utter violation of terms and conditions of the Policy so Insurance company is not liable to pay any compensation to the claimants indemnifying the owner of the vehicle. Moreso as the driving license was not valid, so order of pay and recovery passed by the learned Tribunal is wrong and illegal and is liable to be set aside.

5. On the other hand, it is submitted by learned counsel for the respondent No.1 to 3 that learned Tribunal has correctly passed the impugned Judgment and Award directing the appellant to pay aforesaid amount of compensation to these respondents giving it liberty to recover the same from the owner of the offending vehicle. As these respondents are third party to the contract entered into between the insurance company and the owner of the vehicle, it is impossible for them to recover the amount of compensation from the owner of the vehicle, so it is the demand of justice that the amount of compensation be paid by the insurance company to them and to recover the same from the owner of the vehicle.

6. From perusal of the impugned judgment and record, it appears that owner of the offending vehicle was himself driving the same at the relevant time of accident. From perusal of the ext. ‘A’ ‘B’ and ‘C