Owner`s duty to ensure that driver has a valid license: SC

New Delhi, March 21: The Supreme Court has ruled that it is the duty of the owner to ensure that the driver of the vehicle has a valid driving license. As otherwise in the absence of a valid driving license, the insurance company would not be under any obligation to pay third party insurance claims, a bench of Justices S B Sinha and V S Sirpurkar has said. Dismissing the appeal of family members of Jagiru who died in a road accident, the Apex court observed, "the owner of the vehicle has a statutory obligation to see that the driver of the vehicle whom he authorised to drive the same holds a valid license." Jaiguru, a tonga driver died after a tractor driven by Sushil Kumar knocked him down. The family members filed a claim for compensation but the motor vehicle accident claims tribunal (MACT) dismissed the plea on the ground that the insurance company was liable to compensate as the driver did not have a valid license. The aggrieved family members filed an appeal in the high court which dismissed the plea, by holding that the obligation to pay compensation vested with the owner and driver of the vehicle, but not the insurance company. Upon this the family filed a special leave petition in the Apex Court. Citing a number of it earlier rulings, the Apex Court said a distinction can be drawn where a driver has fake license/ or a license which has expired. But in this case the Apex Court said the driver did not possess any license and as such the insurance company cannot be asked to compensate the claimants of the deceased. Under the circumstances, when the owner had handed over the vehicle for being driven by an unlicensed driver, the insurance company would get exonerated from its liability to meet the claims of the third party who might have suffered on account of the accident, the bench said citing the judgements in the Swaran Singh (2004) and Gian Chand (1997) cases. "For the reasons aforementioned, there is no merit in this appeal which is accordingly dismissed,"the Apex Court said. Bureau Report; zeenews.com