Insurance liability can arise if premium payment is accepted prior to an accident, even if the formal policy issuance occurs later, under Section 64 VB of the Insurance Act.

ORDER :

1. Appellant-Insurance Company has filed this appeal under Section 173 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 (for short “Act of 1988”) challenging the award dated 17.01.2020 passed by Learned Third Additional Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Surajpur, District Surajpur, Chhattisgarh (for short “Claims Tribunal”) in Claim Case No. 15/2018, whereby learned Claims Tribunal allowed the application filed by applicants therein/ claimants under Section 163-A of the Act of 1988 in part and awarded total sum of Rs. 4,17,500/- as compensation in a fatal accident case and fastened liability upon non-applicant No.2/Insurance Company.

2. Facts of the case relevant for disposal of this appeal are that on 25.10.2017 at 10:00 am, Devchand Jaiswal was going from his native village Mahuli on a motorcycle Hero Honda Splendor (hereinafter referred to as “offending motorcycle”) to Janpad Panchayat Odgi to attend a meeting. Nagendra was sitting as pillion on the said vehicle. As soon as they reached near Seelan forest on the main road of Muski, due to technical fault in the said vehicle, wheel of the vehicle got jammed suddenly, due to which his motorcycle collided with a tree on the side of the road and Devchand received serious injuries on his head, chest and ear. He was immediately brought to Community Health Center Biharpur. He was referred to higher hospital but on the way he died.

3. Respondents No. 1 to 6/ claimants who are widow, children, parents and brother of deceased Devchand filed an application under Section 163-A of the Act of 1988 seeking compensation of Rs. 35,55,000/- on the basis of pleadings made therein.

4. Non-applicant No. 1 / Respondent No. 7-owner of the motorcycle filed his reply to the claim application, while denying all the adverse pleadings made therein, it was further pleaded that non-applicant No. 1 had purchased Hero Honda motorcycle bearing Engine No. JA 06 EPHHG 01934, Chassis No. MBLJAR 133 HHG 02292 on loan from Asha Auto Mobiles-Hero Honda's sub-dealer Manendragarh Road Nagar Surajpur on 18.10.2017. Non- applicant No. 1 had given the insurance premium to the Asha Auto Mobiles for getting the said vehicle insured before accident, thus the responsibility of getting the vehicle insured was of Asha Auto Mobiles Surajpur.

5. Appellant-Non-applicant No. 2/ Insurance Company filed its reply, denying the pleadings made in the application, it was further pleaded that the offending motor cycle of non-applicant No. 1 involved in accident on 25.10.2017 at 12:30 pm was not insured by non-applicant No. 2. The accident happened due to the negligence of the deceased and the deceased did not have a valid and effective driving license to drive the motor cycle.

6. Respondent No. 8/Non-applicant No. 3-Proprietor in his reply while rejecting all the pleadings made therein stated that he is not a dealer of two-wheelers of Hero Company, the dealer of two-wheelers of Hero Company is Anand Auto Mobiles, Anand Nagar Ambikapur. On the date of accident, the deceased Devchand caused an accident on the side of the road by driving the vehicle rashly and carelessly, in which Devchand suffered fatal injuries.

7. Learned Claims Tribunal, upon appreciation of pleadings and evidence placed on record by respective parties, held that deceased Devchand died because of grievous injuries suffered in an accident arising out of driving of offending motorcycle. Breach of conditions of insurance policy was not found to be proved, calculated the amount of compensation and awarded Rs. 4,17,500/- as total compensation.

8. Learned counsel for appellant-Insurance Company would submit that learned Claims Tribu