IMPORTANT POINT
Where driving licence held by driver at the time of accident was fake, Insurance Company was justified in repudiating claim regarding damage of vehicle.

Arun Kumar Goel, President—Only question involved that survives for determination in this complaint is whether the driving licence bearing registration No. C-58740/Calcutta dated 16.5.1985 in Form D marked as Ex. C.2 with the report of Shri Janesh Gupta, Advocate, Local Commissioner, was issued by the concerned Licensing Authority at Calcutta or not. In case finding is recorded that it had been issued by the said Authority, the complaint has to be allowed, otherwise consequence is obvious.

Before proceeding further in the matter, it is necessary to briefly notice the chequered history of this case. Complaint was originally filed before this Commission by the complainant against the Insurance Company, hereinafter referred to as the ‘opposite party’ as his claim had been wrongfully rejected. It may also be mentioned here that a Tata Tipper M-1997 bearing registration No. HP-14-3772 was owned by the complainant and was insured with the opposite party on the date of its disappearance i.e. 11.5.1997. FIR No. 35/97 was recorded in this behalf at Police Station Bhawa Nagar, District Kinnaur. After inspection, it transpired that the vehicle had fallen into river Satluj and could not be retrieved despite best efforts made by the complainant. Even help sought from the Army proved to be futile as is evident from Annexure-D dated 31.5.1997, a letter from the Army authorities to this effect. Driver also fell into the river along with the vehicle and was presumed to have died as a result of this incident.

3. Case of the complainant was that he had employed the driver after finding him driving the vehicle properly in a controlled manner prior to his having engaged, Harmit Singh son of Shri Mukhatiar Singh, driver. This driver was working with a Multi-National Company i.e. Continental Foundation, a joint venture, at Nathpa Jakhri Power Corporation Project as a driver. He was working as driver since 1994 till 19.4.1997 as per Annexure-E. In addition to this, there is affidavit of one Shri Sanjay Johar, Deputy Manager (Administration.) Continental Foundation. This affidavit is at page 73 of the complaint file as Annexure CX. According to this affidavit, Harmit Singh, driver, was employed by the said Company from 12.1.1995 to 21.4.1997 when his services were terminated. He has also acknowledged having issued Annexure-E as per this affidavit.

4. Claim was repudiated by the opposite party on the ground that the driving licence in this case as provided by the complainant had not been issued by the Registering & Licensing Authority, Calcutta. According to the opposite party, in the claim form initially No. of the driving licence was given as C58/40/Cal, however, on examination of its

Photostat Copy, it was found that the No. was C-58740/Cal and was renewed at Jalandhar. Opposite party got the matter investigated both at Calcutta, as well as at Jalandhar when it transpired after inspection of the relevant records that the driving licence was fake, as it had not been issued by the authority at Calcutta, nor was it renewed by the authority at Jalandhar. Chance was given to the complainant to explain within one week as to why and how his truck was being driven in violation of law as well as terms and conditions of the Insurance Company by a person who did not have a valid and effective driving licence and whose licence was fake. No explanation was given by the complainant. Finally vide its communication dated 1.2.1999, the claim was repudiated. On this very ground, the claim was contested in reply to the complaint when the opposite party was put to notice.

5. Vehicle being insured with the opposite party was not in dispute and on receipt of information about the accident, final survey was got done by the opposite party from Shri Gurdeep Singh, who vide his report dated 28.4.1998 assessed the loss at Rs. 5,50,000. Prayer was made in this background for dismissal of the complaint.

6. This Commission vide its order dated 3.11.2003 allowed the