The court established that the initial burden of proof regarding the validity of a driving license lies with the driver and owner, and applied the 'pay and recover' doctrine for compensation liability.

Judgment :

(Arvind Kumar Verma, J.)

1. Since both these claim cases are arising out of the same accident, therefore, they are being heard and decided together by this common order.

2. By the instant appeals, the appellant/Insurance Company is challenging the legality and validity of the impugned awards dated 13/12/2018 passed by the learned Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Durg, C.G (in short 'the Tribunal') in Claim Case No.307/2016 and 111/2016, whereby the Tribunal has awarded a total sum of Rs.16,17,315/- on account of the death of the deceased Silochni and 5,93,551/- on account of injury sustained by the injured Leena Sinha.

3. Brief facts necessary for disposal of this appeal are that on 05/04/2016 at about 12.30 PM, deceased Silochni was driving her Scooty and pillion rider was her friend Leena Sinha at that time suddenly from back side one tanker bearing registration No.M.H.43/U/5169 came and dashed the aforesaid scooty because of that the driver of the said vehicle Smt. Silochini Tandon received grevious injury and she succumbed to the said injuries on the same day and the pillion rider Leena Sinha also received injuries on the vital part of the body.

4. Being aggrieved, the claim petition was filed by the mother and married sister and adopted son on behalf of the deceased Silochini which was bearing Motor Accident Claim Case No.307/2016 and the injured filed the Motor Accident Claim Case No.111/2016.

5. The Insurance Company filed its written statement and denied the averments made by the claimants of the deceased and injured and submitted that the claimants of the deceased as well as the injured have not produced the documents with regard to dependency on the deceased and the injured has not produced any document with regard to her age, monthly income and age and further stated that in absence of the same they are not entitled for any compensation from the Tribunal and they have demanded the excessive compensation and prayed to dismiss the claim cases.

6. The Driver and owner of the offending vehicle remained ex-parte before the Tribunal.

7. The MACT, Durg framed the issues and after evaluating the evidence and the documents awarded a compensation of Rs.16,17,315/- to the claimants of the deceased Silochini and compensation of Rs.5,93,551/- to the injured Leena Sinha with an interest of 7% p.a. and the liability for making payment was fastened on the appellant/Insurance Company. Being aggrieved by the said award the Insurance Company has filed these instant appeals.

8. Learned counsel for the Appellant/Insurance Company would contend that in para 13 of the award, the Tribunal has wrongly held that the document of driving license of Driver Vipin Upadhyay has not been proved validly. He would next contend that as per the property seizure memo, the Driving License No.831/STR/05 was seized by the police and the photo copy of driving license of Respondent No.4 was produced by the claimants before the Tribunal, in which also the number of driving license is shown as 831/STR/05. He would next contend that the driver and owner of the insured vehicle remained ex- parte till the final decision of the Tribunal and did not submit any written statement and did not satisfy the initial burden of proof of valid driving license which has been settled by this Court in the matter of DM, National Insurance Vs. Ranjeet Toppo ( MAC No.356/2015 CGHC-DB) which states that the initial burden of proof of valid driving license is with the driver and owner of the vehicle. He would next contend that the driving license No.831/STR/05 which was seized by the police vide property seizure memo and produced by the claimant before the Tribunal, was verified by the insurance company whereby it came to fore that Ex. D/4, which is a report under Form 54 of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989 issued by the RTO, Sultanpur the said driving license is issued in the name of one Bhagauti S/o Amarpal Singh, R/o Lahna, Mochva, Sultapur. He would next contend that as p