Karnataka High Court quashes appeal, asks insurance firm to pay up

The insurance company had argued that the person who had insured the motorcycle had violated a condition of the insurance policy, by allowing another person, who was not holding a driving licence, to drive the vehicle. Therefore the claim petition against the Insurance Company should be dismissed. It further submitted that the rider of the insured motorcycle was prosecuted by the police for not holding the driving licence, and, therefore, it has to be held that he had no driving licence as on the date of accident.

The high court held that to hold that the driver of an insured vehicle had no driving licence on the date of accident, there must be clear evidence on the record of the case to that effect. The court further made it clear that in such cases police chargesheet is no evidence to hold that the driver of the insured vehicle had no driving licence as on the date of accident.

Earlier the Tribunal while ordering the Insurance Company to pay compensation, had observing that, “Merely because the chargesheet is produced it does not mean that the rider of the motorcycle had no licence. In the absence of material documents before the court, the respondent (Insurance Company) has failed to prove the defence. As such the contention raised by the respondent is not tenable under law. As such the insurance company is liable to pay the compensation.”

When the matter reached the high court, the main question before it was whether police chargesheet could be relied upon to hold that the driver of the Insured vehicle had no driving licence as on the date of accident, to which the high court has answered in the negative.