M/S. BAJAJ ALLIANCE GENERAL INSURANCE CO LTD.versusRAMBHA DEVI AND ORS

                  [2023] 12 S.C.R. 241 : 2023 INSC 832



                             CASE DETAILS

    M/S. BAJAJ ALLIANCE GENERAL INSURANCE CO LTD.
                                      v.
                       RAMBHA DEVI AND ORS.
                      (Civil Appeal No. 841 of 2018)
                          SEPTEMBER 13, 2023
      [DR. DHANANJAYA Y CHANDRACHUD, CJI,
 HRISHIKESH ROY, PAMIDIGHANTAM SRI NARASIMHA,
       PANKAJ MITHAL AND MANOJ MISRA, JJ.]
                              HEADNOTES
      Issue for consideration: Whether a person holding a driving licence
in respect of a “light motor vehicle” could on the strength of the licence be
entitled to drive a “transport vehicle of light motor vehicle class” having
unladen weight not exceeding 7500 kgs.
     Motor Vehicles Act 1988 - Person holding a driving licence in
respect of a “light motor vehicle” – Entitlement to drive a “transport
vehicle of light motor vehicle class” having unladen weight not exceeding
7500 kgs, on the strength of that licence:
      Held: Decision in Mukund Dewangan’s case which enables a person
holding a licence for a light motor vehicle to drive a transport vehicle on the
strength of that licence without a separate transport vehicle licence, does not
appear to be in accord with the legislative intent – Any change in the position
of law as expressed would have an impact on large number of persons who
have obtained insurance and may be driving commercial vehicles with LMV
licences relying on Mukund Dewangan’s case – Impact of the reversal of
the decision on the social sector is a facet which would have to be placed
in balance by the policy decisions of the Government – Thus, it would be
necessary for the Union Government to have a fresh look at the matter and
determine whether a change in the law is warranted bearing in mind the
diverse considerations which fall within its remit in making policy choices
and decisions – Union Government requested to carry out the exercise within
the stipulated period and thereafter, the proceedings would be taken up.
                                     241
242          SUPREME COURT REPORTS                     [2023] 12 S.C.R.



       LIST OF CITATIONS AND OTHER REFERENCES
     Mukund Dewangan v Oriental Insurance Company Limited (2017)
14 SCC 663 – referred to.
       OTHER CASE DETAILS INCLUDING IMPUGNED
              ORDER AND APPEARANCES

    CIVIL APPELLATE/EXTRA ORDINARY JURISDICTION: Civil
Appeal No. 841 of 2018.
     From the Judgment and Order dated 04.08.2017 of the High Court
of Judicature for Rajasthan at Jodhpur in S.B. Civil Misc. Appeal No.5127
of 2011.
      With
     SLP(C) Nos. 10918, 9604, 9613 of 2018, Diary No(s). 24834, 25256
of 2018, SLP(C) No. 24671 of 2018, Diary No(s). 32753, 32756, 37055,
39059 of 2018, SLP(C) Nos. 426, 505-506 of 2019, SLP(C) No. 17506
of 2018, Diary No(s). 23638, 24137, 24530, 24534 of 2018, SLP(C) Nos.
5958, 8918-8919, 11503-11504 of 2019, SLP(C) No. 8277 of 2020, SLP(C)
Nos. 8123-8124 of 2022, SLP(C) Nos. 14645-14646, 35472-35473 of 2017,
SLP(C) No. 6055 of 2018, SLP(C) Nos. 18849, 20449, 21547, 23017-23018
of 2019, C.A. Nos. 8001-8002 of 2019, SLP(C) No. 766 of 2020, SLP(C)
Nos. 24545, 30601 of 2019, SLP(C) No. 696 of 2021, C.A. Nos. 1477,
842, 1479, 483, 1506, 1478 of 2018, Diary No. 40406 of 2017, C.A. No.
1476 of 2018, Diary No. 41949 of 2017, SLP(C) Nos. 2684-2685, 597,
524 of 2018, Diary No. 2524 of 2018, SLP(C) Nos. 19242-19244 of 2018,
Diary No. 23636 of 2018, SLP(C) No. 28906 of 2018, SLP(C) Nos. 13315,
14523-14524 of 2019, Diary No. 37270 of 2017, C.A. No. 1475 of 2018,
SLP(C) Nos. 5065, 10459, 9908, 6668 of 2018, Diary No(s). 4869, 6119,
6264 of 2018, SLP(C) Nos. 8816, 9607, 9610, 9612, 9606, 9609 of 2018,
Diary No(s). 9963, 9970, 990 of 2018, SLP(C) No. 5193, 5188, 9611, 9608,
9605 of 2018, SLP(C) No. 20221 of 2023
      Appearances:
     Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General, R Venkataramani, Attorney General,
Jayant K Sud, Siddhartha Dave, Jayant Bhushan, Neeraj Kishan Kaul, Mrs.
Anitha Shenoy, Sr. Advs., Jagdish Chandra Solanki, Ms. Archana Pathak
Dave, Kartik Jasra, Vaibhav Dwivedi, A N Krishna Swami, Udai Khanna,
  M/S. BAJAJ ALLIANCE GENERAL INSURANCE CO LTD. 243
              v. RAMBHA DEVI AND ORS.

Avnish Dave, Jagdish C Solanki, Ms. Riya Sethi, Pratyush Srivastav, Ms.
Vidhi Thaker, Parmod Kumar Vishnoi, Prastut Dalvi, Kumar Prashant,
Tushar Bhushan, Amartya Bhushan, Yojit Mehra, Ketan Paul, Sukant
Vikram, Ms. Sakshi Mittal, Vishnu Mehra, Kunal Malhotra, Amit Kumar
Singh, Ms. K Enatoli Sema, Ms. Chubalemla Chang, Prang Newmai,
Abhsihek Gola, Viresh B. Saharya, Akshat Agarwal, Rajeev Kumar, P. K.
Seth, Ms. Manjeet Chawla, Mrs. Usha Pant Kukreti, Ms. Meenakshi Midha,
Kapil Midha, Ms. Garv Singh, Ms. Samiksha Gupta, Garv Singh, Chander
Shekhar Ashri, Ms. Hetu Arora Sethi, Rajeev Maheshwaranand Roy, Dr.
Meera Agarwal, Ramesh Chandra Mishra, Sandeep Jha, Ram Ekbal Roy,
Binay Kumar Das, Ms. Neha Das, Ms. Priyanka Das, Ms. Aman Nihal,
Sanjay Kumar Singh, Ravi Shankar Ravi, Sanjay Kumar Lal Das, Abhishek
Kumar Gola, Abhishek K Gola, Sudhir Naagar, Anil Kumar, Ms. Amrreeta
Swaarup, Rajesh Kumar Gupta, Ganesh Kumar R., Sanjay Kumar Dubey,
Vivek Kumar Pandey, Shuchi Singh, Rakesh Kumar Tewari, Krishna Kant
Dubey, Ujjwal Kumar Dubey, Ram Lal Roy, Punit Damodar, C. George
Thomas, Sanyat Lodha, Dhruv Sharma, Raghav Agrawal, Toshiv Goyal,
Ms. Raveena Kinkhabwala, Ms. Prachi Pandey, Vivek Mathur, Siddharth
Agarwal, Ivan, Ayushma Awasthi, Ms. Namrata Sarah Caleb, Parita, Ms.
Mohini Priya, Devvrat, Ms. Charu Sangwan, Anup Kumar, Abhijit Banerjee,
Ms. Swati Setia, Devesh Kumar Agnihotri, Sachin Sharma, Anuj Bhandari,
Rajat Gupta, Gaurav Jain, Mrs. Disha Bhandari, Mrs. Anjali Doshi, Kaustubh
Shukla, Abhishek Gola, Anilendra Pandey, Ms. Priya Kashyap, Rajeev
Kumar Ranjan, Ms. Shalini Kaul, Mallikarjun S. Mylar, Ashok Bannidinni,
Sujeet Kumar, Nishanth Patil, Ayush P Shah, Vignesh Adithiya S, Tripurari
Ray, Nithyananda Murthy P, Mrs. Bhanu Prabha, Balwant Singh Billowria,
Vivekanad Singh, Anirudh Ray, Atrul Wadera, N Suresha, Rajinder Singh,
Ms. Shilpa Singh, Sushil Kumar Sharma, Pahlad Singh Sharma, Virendra
Kumar, Manish Kumar Mishra, Kshitij Vedwal, Salil Paul, Sahil Paul, Ms.
Manjeet Chawla, M/s. Nuli & Nuli, Sibo Sankar Mishra, Manjunath Meled,
Sandeep Sharma, Mrs. Vijayalaxmi Udapudi, Anil Kumar, Subhro Sanyal,
Prakash Ranjan Nayak, C.B. Gururaj, Balaram Nayak, Animesh Dubey,
Ms. Laxmi Haribhai Nakum, Sharanagouda Patil, Mrs. Supreeta Patil,
M/s. S-legal Associates, Pradeep Gaur, Amit Gaur, Sunil Kumar Sethi, Ms.
Sweta Sinha, Rameshwar Prasad Goyal, P. B. Suresh, Vipin Nair, Arindam
Ghosh, Karthik Jayashankar, Anshumaan Bahadur, P.b.sashaankh, Mrs.
244            SUPREME COURT REPORTS                       [2023] 12 S.C.R.


Madhavi Yadav, A. N. Krishnaswamy, Navneet Kumar, Saurabh Tiwari,
Parijat Kishore, Faisal Sherwani, Shikher Deep Aggarwal, Shivi Sethi, Onkar
Thakur, M. Shoeb Alam, Ms. Fauzia Shakil, Ujjwal Singh, Ms. Garima
Chaudhary, Ms. Agastya Sen, Advs. for the appearing parties.
         JUDGMENT/ORDER OF THE SUPREME COURT
                                  ORDER
     1. This reference before the Constitution Bench arises in pursuance of
an order dated 8 March 2022 of a Bench of three-Judges. The three-Judge
Bench was in turn hearing a reference by two-Judges which was made on
3 May 2018.
      2. The primary issue which has been referred to the Constitution
Bench is whether a person holding a driving licence in respect of a “light
motor vehicle” could on the strength of the licence be entitled to drive a
“transport vehicle of light motor vehicle class” having unladen weight not
exceeding 7500 kgs.
    3. The issue was dealt with by a Bench of three-Judges in Mukund
Dewangan v Oriental Insurance Company Limited 1. The conclusions
which were arrived at in the judgment were in the following terms:
       “60. Thus, we answer the questions which are referred to us thus:
       60.1. “Light motor vehicle” as defined in Section 2(21) of the Act
             would include a transport vehicle as per the weight prescribed in
             Section 2(21) read with Sections 2(15) and 2(48). Such transport
             vehicles are not excluded from the definition of the light motor
             vehicle by virtue of Amendment Act 54 of 1994.
       60.2. A transport vehicle and omnibus, the gross vehicle weight
             of either of which does not exceed 7500 kg would be a light
             motor vehicle and also motor car or tractor or a roadroller,
             “unladen weight” of which does not exceed 7500 kg and holder
             of a driving licence to drive class of “light motor vehicle” as
             provided in Section 10(2)(d) is competent to drive a transport



1     (2017) 14 SCC 663
    M/S. BAJAJ ALLIANCE GENERAL INSURANCE CO LTD. 245
                v. RAMBHA DEVI AND ORS.

             vehicle or omnibus, the gross vehicle weight of which does
             not exceed 7500 kg or a motor car or tractor or roadroller, the
             “unladen weight” of which does not exceed 7500 kg. That is to
             say, no separate endorsement on the licence is required to drive
             a transport vehicle of light motor vehicle class as enumerated
             above. A licence issued under Section 10(2)(d) continues to be
             valid after Amendment Act 54 of 1994 and 28-3-2001 in the
             form.
      60.3. The effect of the amendment made by virtue of Act 54 of 1994
            w.e.f. 14-11-1994 while substituting clauses (e) to (h) of Section
            10(2) which contained “medium goods vehicle” in Section 10(2)
            (e), “medium passenger motor vehicle” in Section 10(2)(f),
            “heavy goods vehicle” in Section 10(2)(g) and “heavy passenger
            motor vehicle” in Section 10(2)(h) with expression “transport
            vehicle” as substituted in Section 10(2)(e) related only to the
            aforesaid substituted classes only. It does not exclude transport
            vehicle, from the purview of Section 10(2)(d) and Section 2(41)
            of the Act i.e. light motor vehicle.
      60.4. The effect of amendment of Form 4 by insertion of “transport
            vehicle” is related only to the categories which were substituted
            in the year 1994 and the procedure to obtain driving licence for
            transport vehicle of class of “light motor vehicle” continues to
            be the same as it was and has not been changed and there is no
            requirement to obtain separate endorsement to drive transport
            vehicle, and if a driver is holding licence to drive light motor
            vehicle, he can drive transport vehicle of such class without any
            endorsement to that effect.”
      4 When the reference before the three-Judge Bench was taken up,
counsel appearing on behalf of the insurance companies submitted that the
judgment in Mukund Dewangan (supra) has not noticed certain provisions
of the Motor Vehicles Act 19882. In particular, it was submitted that Section
3 stipulates that “no person shall so drive a transport vehicle other than
the motor cab or motor cycle hired for his own use or rented under any


2    “Act”
246          SUPREME COURT REPORTS                      [2023] 12 S.C.R.


scheme made under sub-section (2) of Section 75 unless his driving
licence specifi cally entitles him so to do”. Apart from this, the referral
order notes that the two-Judge Bench was also of the view that other
provisions, including Sections 4(1), 7 and 14 of the Act and Rules 5
and 31 of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules 1989, were not noticed in
Mukund Dewangan(supra).
    5. The Union of India was not a party to the proceedings before this
Court when the referral order was passed on 8 March 2022.
     6. On 20 July 2023, the Constitution Bench heard arguments on
behalf of the insurance companies and on behalf of the claimants. This
Court observed as follows:
      “3. During the course of the hearing, one of the principal
          submissions of the respondents has been that the judgment of
          the three-Judge Bench of this Court in Mukund Dewangan
          v Oriental Insurance Company Limited was accepted by
          the Union government by issuing notifications dated 16 April
          2018 and 31 March 2021 in the Ministry of Road Transport
          and Highways, as a result of which the Rules were amended to
          bring them in conformity with the judgment of this Court.
      4. We are of the considered view that having regard to the above
         background, the position of the Union government in the
         Ministry of Road Transport and Highways would be necessary.
         We request the Attorney General for India to assist the Court in
         the matter.”
     7. As noted in the above extract, the letter dated 16 April 2018 and
notification dated 31 March 2021 in the Ministry of Road Transport and
Highways were pressed in aid on behalf of counsel for the claimants to
urge that the Union Government has, in fact, amended the Rules to bring
them in conformity with the judgment in Mukund Dewangan (supra).
      8 Mr R Venkataramani, Attorney General for India, has appeared
in response to the request of the Court and submitted a written note. The
note submitted by the Attorney General indicates that:
      (i) Application of the ratio in Mukund Dewangan (supra) enables
          a person holding a licence for a light motor vehicle to drive
  M/S. BAJAJ ALLIANCE GENERAL INSURANCE CO LTD. 247
              v. RAMBHA DEVI AND ORS.

           a transport vehicle on the strength of that licence without a
           separate transport vehicle licence; and
     (ii) This interpretation of the provisions of the statute and the Rules
          in Mukund Dewangan (supra) does not appear to be in accord
          with the legislative intent.
      9. The note also indicates that the letter dated 16 April 2018 was
issued by the Union government taking note of the judgment in Mukund
Dewangan (supra) as the law declared by this Court. Resultantly, the
notification dated 31 March 2021 was issued to further amend the Rules
to bring them in conformity with the judgment. However, the Attorney
General has submitted that this may not be treated as a policy declaration
by the Union Government and, as such, the letter and the notification
may not have any bearing or conclusiveness on the state of law to be
clarified.
     10 .At the same time, it has been submitted that the Union of India
is open to the need, if any, to issue guidelines/regulations to address the
perceived gaps in law as understood in the judgment of this Court in
Mukund Dewangan (supra).
      11. Apart from the specific submission of the Union Government
during the course of hearing, that it is open to re-evaluate the position
in law, we are of the considered view that it would be necessary for the
Union Government to have a fresh look at the matter. We are inclined
to take this view for the following reasons:
     (i)    Since the enactment of the Motor Vehicles Act 1988, there has
            been a rapid evolution of the transport sector, particularly in
            the last few years with the emergence of new infrastructure
            and new arrangements for putting into place private transport
            arrangements;
     (ii) Any interpretation or formulation of the law must duly take
          into account valid concerns of road safety bearing on the safety
          of users of public transport facilities;
     (iii) Any change in the position of law as expressed in Mukund
           Dewangan (supra) would undoubtedly have an impact on
248          SUPREME COURT REPORTS                       [2023] 12 S.C.R.


           persons who have obtained insurance relying on the law
           declared by this Court and who may be driving commercial
           vehicles with LMV licences. A large number of persons would
           be dependent on the sector for earning their livelihood; and
      (iv) The decision in Mukund Dewangan (supra) has held the
           field for nearly six years and the impact of the reversal of the
           decision, at this stage, particularly on the social sector, is a
           facet which would have to be placed in balance by the policy
           arm of the Government.
      12 .The considerations which have been fl agged above do not
necessarily weigh in the same direction. However, all of them do raise
important issues of policy which must be assessed and evaluated by the
Union Government. Whether a change in the law is warranted is a matter
which has to be determined by the Union Government after taking a
considered decision bearing in mind the diverse considerations which
fall within its remit in making policy choices and decisions.
      13. Having regard to these features, we are of the view that the issue
of interpretation which has been referred to the Constitution Bench by
the referral order dated 8 March 2022 should await a careful evaluation
of the policy considerations which may weigh with the Government
in deciding as to whether the reversal of the decision as it obtains in
Mukund Dewangan (supra) is warranted and, if so, the way forward
that must be adopted bearing in mind the diverging interests, some of
which have been noted in the earlier part of the order.
     14. Hence, in view of the consequences which may arise by the
reversal of the judgment in Mukund Dewangan (supra), it would be
appropriate if the entire matter is evaluated by the Government before
this Court embarks upon the interpretative exercise. Once the Court
is apprised of the considered view of the Union Government, the
proceedings before the Constitution Bench can be taken up.
     15. We request the Union Government to carry out this exercise
within a period of two months.
     16. We clarify that we have not expressed any opinion on the
merits of the referral order dated 8 March 2022 or on the correctness of
  M/S. BAJAJ ALLIANCE GENERAL INSURANCE CO LTD. 249
              v. RAMBHA DEVI AND ORS.

the decision in Mukund Dewangan (supra) which would await further
arguments once the considered view of the Union Government is placed
before this Court.
     17. List the proceedings for directions on 22 November 2023, as a
part-heard case on the top of the Board.


Headnotes prepared by:                        Proceedings listed for directions.
Nidhi Jain