Minu B

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Minu B. Mehta And Another vs Balkrishna Ramchandra Nayan And

... on 28 January, 1977

HEADNOTE:

While the respondent was travelling in his car, the appel- lant's truck, driven by a driver,

hit the car and caused injuries to the respondent and damaged the car. The Claims

Tribunal awarded compensation to the respondent, and the High Court upheld the

Tribunal's award. In the course of the judgment the High Court, however, observed that

every person has a right to security and safety of his person irrespective of the fault or

negligence or carelessness and that every person has a right to claim compensation, irre-

spective of proof of negligence on the part of the driver. It further observed that the

perimeters of liability in cls. (i) and (ii) of s. 95(1)(b) must be held to be the same

because in both, the liability of the owner of the driver exists and is made compulsorily

insurable and that it could not be said that the legislature intended absolute liability in

cases covered by cl. (ii) and not in cases covered by cl. (i).

HELD: Proof of negligence is necessary before the owner or the insurer could be held

liable for payment of compensation in motor vehicle accident claims. The High Court's

views are opposed to basic principles of the owner's liability for negligence of his

servant and are based on a com- plete misreading of the provisions of Chapter VIII of

the .Motor Vehicles Act. [900 F]

1. Before a person can be made liable to pay compensation for any injuries and damage

caused by his action. it is necessary that the person injured should be able to establish

that he has some cause of action against the party responsible. In order to succeed in an

action for negligence the plaintiff must prove (1) that the defendant had, in the

circumstances, a duty to, take care and that duty was owed by him to the plaintiff and

(2) that there .was a breach of that duty and that as a result of the breach damage was

suffered by the plaintiff. The master also becomes liable for the conduct of the servant

when the servant is proved to have acted negligently in the course of his employment.

[895 C-D]

2(a) The purpose of making insurance compulsory is to protect the interests of the

successful claimant from being defeated by the owner of the vehicle who has not enough

means to meet his liability. The safeguard is provided by imposing certain statutory

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duties, namely, the duty not to. drive or permit a car to be driven unless the car is

covered by third party insurance. 1895 F] (b) Under s. 95(1)(b)(i) of the Act, the policy of

insurance must be a policy which insures against any liability which may be incurred in

respect of death or bodily injury to any person or damage to any property of a third

party caused by or arising out of the use of the vehicle in a public place. The accident to

which the owner or the person insuring is liable is to the extent of his liability in respect

of death or bodily injury and that liability is covered by the insurance. It is, therefore,

obvious that if the owner has not incurred any liability in respect of death or bodily

injury to any person there is no liability and it is not intended to be covered by the

insurance. The liability contemplated arises under the law of negligence and under the

principle of vicarious liability. The provisions of the section do not make the owner or

the insurance compa- ny liable for any bodily injury caused to a third party arising out of

the use of the vehicle unless the liability can be fastened on him. [896 D-F]

New India Assurance Co. Ltd. v. Raju Markose 1989 ACJ 643 (Kerala). There

also it is held that proof of negligence is necessary before owner or the insurer can be

held liable for payment of compensation in a motor accident claim's case. There, the

accident occurred before Section 92-A of the Act which provided for no fault liability

came into force. It is also explained there that Section 92-A dispenses with proof of

negligence in the matter of award of compensation to the extent indicated therein, that

the said section indicates that the substantive law is changed only to the extent indicated

and that, but for the said modification, the substantive law continues to be in force and

no claim for compensation is sustainable without proof of negligence except to the

extent such proof is dispensed with by Section 92-A.

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Bishan Devi v. Sirbaksh Singh 1979 ACJ 496 (SC), A liability can be cast on another only if he is in any way responsible for the accident which

occasioned the injury. In other words, there is no scope for any absolute liability on the owner of

the vehicle to compensate the injured. The provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act do not contain

any statutory provision to that effect. The Act does not provide a new right or a new remedy to a

person who is injured by an accident. The provisions of the Act do not in any way interfere with

the substantive common law on the subject.

Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation v. Ramanbhai Prabhatbhai 1987 ACJ 561

(SC), while dealing with Section 92-A of the Act in the newly introduced Chapter VII-A

of the said Act providing for 'no fault liability'. The Supreme Court in the said decision

observed as follows:

That part of the Act is clearly a departure from the usual common law principle that a

claimant should establish negligence on the part of the owner or driver of the motor

vehicle before claiming any compensation for the death or permanent disablement

caused on account of a motor vehicle accident. To that extent the substantive law of the

country stands modified.

K. Nanda-kumar v. Managing Director, Thanthai Periyar Transport Corporation

Ltd. 1992 ACJ 1095 (Madras) and we have expressed further as follows:

It must be noted here that only to the above extent, the substantive law has been

modified in this regard and not to the extent that even where the deceased or the

injured, as the case may be, is negligent and not the other party, the former can claim

compensation. Where the former is negligent, there is no scope at all for himself

claiming any compensation from any other party for his own fault. That is the

substantive law. That part of the substantive law has not at all been modified by Section

92-A of the Act.

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New India Assurance Co. Ltd. vs Meenal And Ors. on 20 December,

1991

Section 95(1), Motor Vehicles Act, in so far as it uses the expression 'in respect of the death of or bodily injury to any person or damage to any property of a third party' should be taken to cover

any liability which may be incurred by the owner of the vehicle in respect of death of or bodily

injury to any person or damage to any property of a third party. The presence of two expressions

'any person' and 'third party' in the same provision would indicate that the expression 'any

person' has been used in a wide sense and not only in the sense of a 'third party'. Even if Section

95(1) can be construed as including the liability of the owner of the car for the death of or bodily

injury to any person, this provision cannot be invoked by the claimants in this case, unless the

claimants are able to establish that the owner has incurred a liability in respect of the death of or

bodily injury to the deceased, which liability has to be insured as per the provisions of Section

95(1). It cannot be said that the mere ownership of the car creates liability on the part of the

owner of the vehicle to pay compensation for the death of or injury to any person. The liability can arise only when the owner of the vehicle was in any way responsible for causing the accident

which has resulted in that liability. In this case, the accident was caused by the rashness and

negligence of the deceased and in such cases there is no legal liability arising either under the

law of Torts or any other basis under the common law. Only when there is a legal liability, that

liability has to be insured under Section 95(1).

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