Summary
The Supreme Court restored the registered vehicle owner’s liability to compensate accident victims despite successive alleged sales unrecorded in the registration certificate. For the Motor Vehicles Act, the person whose name remains registered is the owner, subject to the statutory special categories. Claimants need not trace a chain of unregistered transfers. Decisions involving compulsory State requisition and possession under hypothecation did not absolve this registered owner. The High Court’s order shifting liability to a subsequent purchaser was set aside.
Issues
- Whether an alleged sale without change in registration relieved the registered owner of accident-compensation liability.
Provisions considered
- Section 2(30), Motor Vehicles Act, 1988The registered person remained owner for statutory compensation liability, subject to the defined categories concerning a minor and possession under hire-purchase, lease or hypothecation. (¶¶ 6, 12, 13)
- Section 50, Motor Vehicles Act, 1988Transfer procedures and penalties for non-reporting did not erase the registered owner’s liability to third-party victims while registration remained unchanged. (¶¶ 7, 8, 12, 13)
Held
- For purposes of the Act, the person in whose name the vehicle remains registered is treated as owner. A purported transfer unreflected in official registration does not absolve that person of liability, even though title may have passed under general civil law by consideration and delivery. (¶¶ 6, 8, 12, 13)
- Section 2(30) separately addresses a minor’s guardian and the person possessing a vehicle under hire-purchase, lease or hypothecation. Reshma concerned hypothecation; Purnya Kala Devi concerned compulsory State requisition. Their possession-and-control reasoning did not exempt an ordinary seller whose name remained registered. (¶¶ 6, 9, 10, 11, 12)
- Accident victims and their heirs should not be left uncertain or required to trace successive unregistered sales. Here the first respondent remained registered owner, and the uninsured vehicle’s compensation liability remained fastened upon him in terms of the tribunal’s award. (¶¶ 1, 2, 12, 13, 14)
Result
Appeal allowed; High Court judgment set aside and first respondent’s liability to compensate restored in terms of the tribunal’s judgment. No costs.