IMPORTANT POINT
Insurance Company cannot deny benefit of insurance policy to complainant where vehicle met with accident during grace period of 14 days.

V.K.Jain, Presiding Member—The car bearing registration no. CH-03-W-7553 was owned by a Company namely M/s. Parabolic Drugs Ltd., Chandigarh and the said Company had got it insured with the petitioner, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Co. Ltd. for the period from 13.10.2012 to 12.10.2013. The aforesaid vehicle was sold by M/s. Parabolic Drugs Ltd. to one Sh. Gurpreet Singh on 14.12.2012. He applied to the RLA, Chandigarh on 09.02.2013 for transfer of the vehicle in his name and the vehicle was actually transferred in his name on 17.02.2013. On 18.02.2013, the complainant, Sh. Kulvir Singh, purchased the aforesaid vehicle from Sh. Gurpreet Singh and applied to the RLA, Chandigarh for transfer of the said vehicle from the name of Sh. Gurpreet Singh to his name. The vehicle, however, met with an accident on 27.02.2013. A claim was duly lodged by the complainant with the Insurance Company, but it came to be rejected vide letters dated 15.04.2013, 22.04.2013 and 08.05.2013 on the ground that the petitioner Company did not have a contract of Insurance with the complainant.

2. Being aggrieved from the repudiation of the claim, the complainant approached the concerned District Forum by way of a complaint. The complaint was resisted by the Insurance Company on the same ground on which the claim was repudiated. It was also pointed out in the reply that Sh. Gurpreet Singh despite having purchased the vehicle on 14.12.2012, had not got the insurance transferred in his name at any point of time.

3. The District Forum, vide its order dated 18.09.2014 directed the Insurance Company to pay an amount of Rs. 3,83,247/- to the complainant alongwith interest at the rate of 9% per annum. The Insurance Company was also directed to pay Rs. 20,000/- as compensation and Rs. 10,000/- as the cost of litigation. Being aggrieved from the order passed by the District Forum, the Insurance Company approached the concerned State Commission, by way of an appeal. The said appeal having been dismissed vide impugned order dated 25.02.2015, the said Company is before this Commission by way of this revision petition.

4. Section 157 (2) of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, to the extent it is relevant requires the transferee of a vehicle to apply to the insurer, within 14 days from the date of the transfer of the vehicle to him, for making necessary changes in regard to the fact of transfer in the certificate of insurance and the policy described in the certificate, in his favour and on such application being made, the insurer is required to make the necessary changes in the certificate and the policy of insurance in regard to the transfer of insurance.

5. It would thus be seen that the transferee of a vehicle has by statute been given a grace period of 14 days for applying to the insurer to transfer the registration of the vehicle in his name. In the present case, Sh. Kulvir Singh, having purchased the vehicle in question on 17.02.2013, he had time till 04.03.2013 to apply to the petitioner Company for transfer of the insurance policy and the certificate of insurance in his name. Unfortunately, the vehicle met with an accident during the aforesaid grace period of 14 days, which was statutorily available to the complainant in terms of Section 157(2) of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988. Therefore, the Insurance Company in my view cannot deny the benefit of the insurance policy to the complainant, subject, of course, to its verifying the flow of title to the vehicle from M/s. Parabolic Drugs Ltd. to the complainant.

6. The main contention of the learned counsel for the petitioner Company is that since Sh. Gurpreet Singh did not get the policy transferred in his name, the contract of the petitioner Company with him came to an end and consequently, the complainant could not have sought transfer of the insurance policy in his name. I, however, find no merit in the aforesaid contention. The only requirements of Section 157(2) of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 are that a pe