The Supreme Court of India (SC) has on November 6 ruled that drivers holding a light motor vehicle or LMV licence can also drive transport vehicles with weight up to 7,500 kg, as per a PTI alert.
The SC in its ruling said that there is no empirical data that LMV driving licence holders are responsible for rise in road accidents in country. Writing the unanimous verdict for the four-judge constituinal bench including CJI DY Chandrachud, Justice Hrishikesh Roy said the issue pertains to livelihood of drivers having LMV driving licenses.
“There is no empirical data that LMV driving licence holders are responsible for rise in road accidents in the country. LMV driving licence holders, who spent maximum time behind the wheels, are seeking an answer from the court and their grievances cannot be rejected on technical grounds,” he wrote.
Besides the CJI and Justice Roy, the bench also comprised Justices PS Narasimha, Pankaj Mithal and Manoj Misra.
The ruling largely comes as a relief for commercial vehicle drivers, and 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, as per the report.
The issue has been long disputed with insurance firms 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.
The legal question before the SC 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, according to a PTI report.
The bench had reserved its verdict on August 21 on the issue 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 question was referred to the larger bench on March 8, 2022 by a three-judge bench headed by Justice U U Lalit (since retired). The question arose from the apex court's 2017 verdict in the case of Mukund Dewangan versus Oriental Insurance Company Limited.
On July 18 last year, the Constitution bench commenced hearing a total of 76 petitions to deal with the legal question. The lead petition was filed by M/s Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Company Limited.
(With inputs from PTI)
