Owner Of Vehicle Alone Liable To Pay Compensation U/S.140 Motor Vehicles Act; Driver Not Liable Jointly & Severally: Himachal Pradesh High Court

The High Court was considering the appeals filed by the appellants against the impugned order of the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal-II, Chamba, District Chamba, H.P., whereby the appellants (owner and driver of the offending vehicle) were held jointly and severally liable to pay interim compensation of Rs 50,000 in favour of the claimant under Section 140 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988.

The Single Bench of Justice Sushil Kukreja stated, “However, in the given case, the learned Tribunal below has fastened the liability on the owner as well as the driver of the vehicle jointly and severally against the mandate of the provisions of Section 140 of MV Act. The driver could not have been made liable to pay the compensation jointly and severally along with the owner of the offending vehicle. It is the owner of the vehicle alone who shall be liable to pay compensation in accordance with the provisions of Section 140 of the MV Act, 1988 in respect of such death or disablement from an accident arising out of the use of a motor vehicle and the claimant shall not be required to plead and establish that the death or permanent disablement in respect of which the claim has been made was due to any wrongful act, neglect or default of the owner of the vehicle concerned or of any other person.”

Advocate Vijay Chaudhary represented the Appellant, while Advocate Nimish Gupta represented the Respondent.

Arguments

It was the case of the driver of the offending vehicle that the Tribunal had erroneously fastened the liability upon him, who admittedly was not the owner of the vehicle at the time of the accident.

The owner of the offending vehicle filed the appeal on the ground that the Tribunal had failed to appreciate that since he had exchanged the offending vehicle for a new Maruti Swift Car, therefore, he was not liable to pay any compensation for the use of said vehicle.

Reasoning

Referring to Section 140 of the MV Act, the Bench explained that where death or permanent disablement of any person has resulted from an accident arising out of the use of motor vehicle or motor vehicles, the owner of the vehicle or, as the case may be, the owners of the vehicles shall jointly and severally, be liable to pay compensation in accordance with the provisions of this Section.

The Bench affirmed that a person in whose name a motor vehicle is registered is the owner of the vehicle for the purposes of the Act. The Bench also noted that in the case at hand, appellant Sukhwinder Singh was the registered owner of the vehicle in question and, in view of the definition of the “owner”, he remained owner of the offending vehicle on the date of the accident.

“The vehicle was un-insured, therefore, learned Tribunal below has not committed any illegality in fastening the liability upon him, being registered owner of the offending vehicle. However, as observed earlier, learned Tribunal below has erred in law by fastening the liability on the driver of the vehicle as driver could not have been held liable to pay the compensation jointly and severally alongwith the owner under Section 140 of MV Act”, it held.

Setting aside the impugned order passed by the Tribunal, the Bench held that the owner of the offending vehicle would alone be liable to pay interim compensation of Rs 50,000 in favour of the claimant.

Cause Title: Gargesh Kumar v. Aditya (Neutral Citation: 2025:HHC:36024)

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