NEW DELHI, Nov 6: In a jolt to the vehicle insurance companies and major relief to the commercial vehicle drivers, the Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that a person holding a driving licence for Light Motor Vehicles (LMV) is also entitled to drive a transport vehicle with an unladen weight not exceeding 7,500 kg.
The judgement of a five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud is a jolt to insurance companies which had been rejecting claims if accidents involved transport vehicles of a particular weight and if the drivers were not authorised to drive them as per legal stipulation.
“There is no empirical data that LMV driving licence holders are responsible for rise in road accidents in the country,” Justice Hrishikesh Roy, who wrote the unanimous verdict for the Bench, said. He said the LMV driving licence holders, who spent maximum time behind the wheels, were seeking an answer from the court and their grievances cannot be rejected on technical grounds.
Besides the CJI and Justice Roy, the Bench also comprised Justices P.S. Narasimha, Pankaj Mithal and Manoj Misra. The bench had reserved its verdict on the vexatious issue on August 21 after Attorney General R. Venkataramani, appearing for the Centre, had submitted that the consultations to amend the Motor Vehicles (MV) Act, 1988 are “almost complete.”
The top court asked the Centre to complete the exercise of amending the law at the earliest. The legal question, which was answered by the Bench, was whether a person holding a driving licence for a light motor vehicle (LMV) is also entitled to drive a transport vehicle with an unladen weight not exceeding 7,500 kg.
The issue has given rise to various disputes over payment of claims by insurance companies in accident cases involving transport vehicles being driven by those possessing licences to drive LMVs. The insurance firms have been alleging that the motor accident claim tribunals (MACTs) and the courts have been passing orders asking them to pay insurance claims disregarding their objections with regard to the LMV driving licence.
The courts have been adopting a pro-insured approach while deciding insurance claim disputes, the insurance firms had said.
(Manas Dasgupta)