An omnibus is not a public service vehicle unless it is used for the carriage of passengers for hire or reward.

1. This appeal under section 170 of the Motor Vehicles Act, is against the award dated 4-7-1998 passed by the Judge, Motor Accidents Claim Tribunal, Jammu awarding Rs. 2,13,900/- as compensation to the widow and two minor children of late Raju Masih, who died in a motor vehicle accident. The accident, according to the admitted facts, took place on 31-12-1996 when the deceased while riding his scooter, was knocked down by the offending vehicle No. JK02 E 5098 at Jammu.

2. The challenge to the award is two fold (i) that the driver of the offending vehicle, respondent-1 was not holding a valid driving license at the time of accident; and (ii) that the amount awarded is far in excess of the dependency assessed by the tribunal.

3. But quantum of compensation cannot be challenged by the insurer except where it is arbitrary fixed in violation of the law laid down in U.P. State Road Transport Corpn. Vs. Trilok Chandra 1996 ACJ 831, which is not the case here.

4. Therefore, the only question required to be determined in this appeal is, whether the respondent-driver was holding a valid driving license at the time of accident.

5. The argument of Mr. Gupta appearing for the appellant is that the offending vehicle being a public service vehicle as defined under section 2 (35) of the Act, license to drive the same must have endorsement under Rules 3 and 4 of the J&K Motor Vehicles Rules. Since the driving license did not bear PSV endorsement, therefore, the driver was not holding an effective driving license within the meaning of Insurance Policy and the Act.

6. The contention of Mr. Ajay Gandotra on the other hand is that the appellant having failed to prove the terms of the Insurance Policy, it is not open to them to challenge the validity of the driving license.

7. First of all, we may notice the decision relied upon by Mr. Gupta in support of his contention. The High Court of Madhya Pradesh in New India Assurance. Company Limited Vs. Shaliesh Yadav 1998 ACJ 755. In this case, the court held as under:-

The admitted position in the case is that the offending vehicle was registered as taxi at the relevant time and the same was being driven by the respondent-3 in flagrant violation of the provisions of section 3 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939. Section 3 of the Motor Vehicles Act, reads as under:-

that if a person holds an effective driving license he is not automatically disqualified. If he was disqualified his license cannot be effective. There being two distinct possibilities of holding an effective license without any disqualification or though not holding an effective licence still cannot be disqualified....

9. However, the main question is, whether section 3 of the Motor Vehicles Act has been violated in this case. In terms of the license, driver was authorized to drive light motor vehicle, medium and heavy goods vehicle. The light motor vehicle is defined under section 2(2) and omnibus is also a light motor vehicle. The term omnibus is defined under section 2(29) of the Act, which reads as under-

29. Omnibus means any motor vehicle constructed or adapted to carry more than six persons excluding the driver. That light motor vehicle includes an omnibus which is evident from Section 2(21) of the Act, which reads as under:

2(21) light motor vehicle means a transport vehicle or omnibus the gross vehicle weight of either or which or a motor car or tractor or road roller the unladen weight of any of which does not exceed 7500 kilograms.

This read with the definition of light motor vehicles, makes it abundantly clear that if the driving licensing authorities authorises the driver to drive light motor vehicle, he can drive an omnibus without the endorsement.

10. However, according to Mr. Gupta, the driving license of the driver of offending vehicle was not valid to drive a Public Service Vehicle because the driver of the offending vehicle was not authorised to drive it, in the absence of endorsement. A Public Service Vehicle is defined in section 2

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