- (1.) Heard Miss Pooja Arora, learned counsel for the appellant and Shri M. E. Khan alongwith Shri Anubhav Prakash Srivastava learned counsel for the respondent no.8. None has appeared for the claimants respondents.
(2.) The instant appeal has been preferred under Section 173 of the Motor Vehicle Act against the award dated 10.09.2002 passed by the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Court No.1, Sultanpur in Claim Petition No.143 of 1998 wherein an amount of Rs.2,13,000/- has been awarded alongwith 8% interest in favour of the claimants-respondents no.1 to 7.
(3.) Learned counsel for the appellant has raised a two fold submission:- (i) It has been pressed that the respondent no.8 and respondent no.10 could not establish the fact that on the date of the accident i.e. 19.06.1998 the offending vehicle in question stood transferred in the name of respondent no.10 and while a specific plea was raised by the insurance company that the offending driver did not have a valid and effective driving licence and this aspect of the matter has not been considered by the claims tribunal. It has further been submitted that it was alleged in the claim petition that the vehicle belongs to Mohd. Shakir Khan and was being driven by Kallu i.e. the respondent no.9 before this Court. It was also submitted that Kallu was charge-sheeted for rash and negligent driving in respect of the accident in question. However, no driving licence of Kallu was brought on record. The only driving licence which was brought on record was of Surendra Pratap and there was no evidence to connect as to how and in what manner the alleged driving licence of Surendra Pratap would come to the rescue of owner and thus in view thereof the finding returned by the tribunal regarding the driving licence was completely bereft of any material and having not returned a finding on the said issued at all and yet fixing the liability on the insurance company is a gross error committed by the tribunal. (ii) Learned counsel for the appellant has further submitted that the insurance policy which was brought on record , was in the name of Mohd. Shakir Khan and the same was effective from 23rd of June, 1998 and was valid till 22nd of June, 1999 whereas the accident in question occurred on 19.06.1998 i.e. prior to the date when the aforesaid policy became effective and as such on the date of the accident since the policy was not effective and there was no privity of contract between the insurance company and the insured accordingly the finding given by the tribunal regarding the insurance policy is also erroneous. ;