Sale of vehicle - Transfer of ownership - view of Consumer Court

Bengaluru edition of TOI on 20.12.2021 carried an article titled : ‘Vehicle registration certificate transfer enough to get insurance cover’ –may not have been appropriately worded but very relevant for Insurers, insuring public and those connected with all these including YOU & ME owning automobiles. 

Every road in Chennai [be it every other Metropolis] are clogged with vehicles of various hues – two wheelers, autos, cars, taxis, trucks, buses and other miscellaneous vehicles.  The definition of ‘Motor vehicle’ as per Act is :  Any mechanically propelled vehicle adapted for use upon roads whether the power of propulsion is transmitted from an external or internal source.  The increased traffic in roads also inversely increases the road accidents – road accident victims can claim for compensation in MACT –every MACT OP is but gory details of the tragic circumstances – human lives are precious and every such accident snatches not only life / or damage to limbs besides bringing untold hardship of financial strain, suddenly making the dependents defend themselves in the cruel World.  The Govt aims to provide some monetary compensation as a recompense - Motor vehicle insurance law in India is governed by the Motor Vehicles Act, Insurance Act and the like. 

Insurance is a contract – and for claiming any benefit under the contract of insurance, there are primary tenets – that of claimant being party to the contract (sometimes getting beneficial right to claim by virtue of assignment) and the claimant possessing insurable interest, contract being valid at the time of occurrence and .. .. operation of peril specified in the contract.  Cars (automobiles) do change hands, they are sold .. .. and there are procedures / legal points in ensuring continuance of contract – transfer to the new owner ! 

First a cursory reading the news as reported in the paper : 

Mysuru resident Abishek R Das, 25, purchased a Hyundai Verna car from Sheeba Robert in October 2019. On October 10, Das got the RC transferred to his name and planned to transfer the insurance paper within the stipulated 14-day period. But on October 12, his acquaintance drove the car and caused a serious accident, entailing repair costs of over Rs 6 lakh. 

With the car’s policy under United India Insurance Company Ltd active from January 16, 2019, to January 15, 2020, in the name of its previous owner Robert, Das raised an accident claim. While a surveyor was sent to assess the car damage, the firm turned down the claim, stating there was no contract between Das and United India and it was not liable to pay. 

Das approached the I Additional District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission with a complaint against United India Insurance on August 7, 2020. His lawyer presented his case while the insurer’s Bengaluru representatives failed to appear. The insurer’s Chennai counterparts countered the case through their attorney who claimed that the complaint was false. The lawyer argued that the insurance policy was in the name of Sheeba, the first owner of the car, and Das was nowhere in the picture. 

However, the consumer court cited Supreme Court verdicts in similar cases where the second owner, as per section 157 of the Motor Vehicles Act, enjoys certain benefits, including insurance cover, if he transfers the RC to his name. The court pointed out the accident had taken place two days after the RC transfer. In its verdict on November 18, 2021, the court held that the insurer repudiating Das’ accident claim for an active policy is a clear service deficiency.

It asked the insurer to pay Rs 6,58,432 with interest towards car repair and additional sums of Rs 25,000 (for causing inconvenience), Rs 25,000 (damages) and Rs 10,000 (court expenses). 

Every case is a learning and here too there are some ambiguities .. ..  there is codified statue – Motor Vehicles Act 1988.  The 1988 Act requires issuance of a Certificate of Insurance by the insurers as proof of Third party insurance to satisfy the requirements of Chapter XI of the Act. The Certificate of Insurance Form 51 must be in the form prescribed under the Motor Vehicles Rules framed under the Act. Certificate is to be issued by the “Authorized Insurer and Authorized Government insurance Fund” who are authorized to do general insurance business in India. Certificate of insurance includes Cover Note and Policy of Insurance includes ‘Certificate of Insurance.” 

In this context another Section of MV Act is very relevant.  Sec 157. Transfer of certificate of insurance. 

1.       Where a person in  whose  favour   the  certificate  of  insurance  has  been  issued  in accordance with  the provisions  of this  Chapter transfers to another  person the  ownership of  the motor  vehicle in  respect of which such insurance was  taken together  with the  policy of  insurance relating thereto, the  certificate of insurance and the policy described in the certificate shall  be deemed to have been transferred in favour of the person to  whom the  motor vehicle is transferred with effect from the date of its transfer. 

2.       The transferee shall apply within fourteen days from the date of transfer in the prescribed form to the insurer for making necessary changes in  regard to  the fact  of transfer  in  the  certificate  of insurance and  the policy  described in  the certificate in his favour and the  insurer shall  make the  necessary changes in the certificate and the policy of insurance in regard to the transfer of insurance. 

The Motor Vehicles Amendment Act, 1994 added an explanation in Sec. 157 (1) stating that such deemed transfer shall include transfer of rights and liabilities of the said Certificate of Insurance and Policy of Insurance. However Supreme Court of India has held in 1996 and in various instances  that the automatic transfer is only for Third Party risks and not the Own damage portion    i.e. damage to the vehicle cover. 

Thus it is clear and apparent that the new owner would not get insurance protection straightaway – will have to apply and if not within the stipulated period of 14 days, most Insurers insist on inspection of vehicle, excluding existing damages and perforce payment (recovery) of NCB (if any) granted to the original insured as the buyer / transferee is not entitled.  However, in the instant case, going by the details available, it does appear that accident occurred within the period of grace as allowed by Statue itself and perhaps benefits should have been provided, without need for agitating in a Forum.  

In the end, the Consumer Forum has directed the Insurer to pay the full value of the claim besides imposing a penal cost too, which could have been avoided. 

Look forward to the views of legal experts ! – you may post your views in comments section of my blog or email me at samvijb17@gmail.com 

With regards – S. Sampathkumar
21.12.2021 
 
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bengaluru/rc-transfer-enough-to-get-insurance-cover/articleshow/88379969.cms 

famous Chepauk stadium to get a new face-lift

What connects Jaya Sharma & Suzie Bates ???  Automobile Products of India (API) was founded   Bombay by the British company Rootes Group, and later bought over by  a Madras doyen.   The company manufactured Lambretta scooters, API Three Wheelers under license from Innocenti of Italy. The manufacturing facilities were located in Mumbai and Aurangabad in Maharashtra and in Ambattur, Chennai.  Sadly the  company has not been operational since 2002.   This is a true Cricket post and the founder of Scooter company was an Industrialist associated with the famous SPIC too, and was the Mayor of Madras in 1955.

 

In 1859, Madras Presidency acquired Chepauk palace in an auction – a few years later obtained Govt permission to build pavilion at the palace grounds to Madras Cricket Club. The pavilion was reconstructed in 1892[8] and was utilized till 1982 when it was demolished as part of the stadium renovation.  Understand that a couple years ago, the lease period of the stadium was extended by the Tamil Nadu government for 21 years from 2015. The infrastructure is centuries old and the first match of the Ranji Trophy was held on 4 November 1934 between Madras and Mysore at Chepauk. MJ Gopalan  bowled the first ball to N Curtis. 

Have experienced this at Chepauk .. .. most of us would get into the stadium early morning 3 or even 4 hours before the match.  In the morning, some players would come and warm-up – we would get delighted when Indian players wave to the spectators. Toss would make us go bonkers on the various possibilities. Then silence would descend .. .. a few minutes before the scheduled start, suddenly D stand would come alive – for they would have spotted the Umpires walking inside the pavilion with their hats !  .. .. .. and rest of the stadium would start cheering. Fielding Captain would enter the field, most likely their fast bowler would run in, take a few measures from the stumps marking their line-up; meantime the Openers would spring in (if it is Krish Cheeka – he would walk to the right side of his partner, staring at the Sun and chanting Aditya Hridayam !)  .. those were the days, when the huge rotund pillars would hide the view and one had to search for good seats .. .. much water has flowed and much has changed since. 

Chepauk stadium …  MA Chidambaram stadium to be precise.  We have seen so many first division matches, local tournaments, Buchibabu, Ranji, Duleep, Deodhar trophy matches and then Tests (Pongal Tests !) ..  Test No. 708 – India won by 4 wickets against England;  Test No. 752 ever remembered by that classy knock of Vishwanath; great bowling of Andy Roberts and the defeat (100 runs at that) suffered by Clive Lloyd against Pataudi led Indians in 1975; Test no. 841 Kalicharran led WI lost to Gavaskar captained India in 1979; Test no. 869 – grand Indian win against Pakistan in 1980 – Kapil Dev Man of the Match, SandipPatil made his debut;  Test no. 1089 Vivian Richards led WI lost badly (255 runs) to Ravi Shastri led Indians – Hirwant made dream debut taking 16 wickets – WV Raman and Ajay Sharma also made their debuts….  

                  ~ all Indian wins …. Not the only link… all Chepauk tests… and more importantly the Pongal Tests !!!...............  the ground at Chepauk has been in existence from imperial days – the first ever test here was in 1933-34 when Douglas Jardine played CkNayudu led team.  Crowds have always come in large numbers  ~ it is not only the numbers – they are reputed to be most knowledgeable and appreciative.. but the high rise dividers, barbed fence et.al. gave us a  different feeling.  In 1970s – remember that the stadium had double-layered fencing – separating the spectators from the playing arena.  Yet, when an Indian scores a century, a couple of people would scale the fence, get down, run, reach the player to congratulate them on their performance. 

Chepauk those days was spacious – the B & C stands had no chairs;  spectators used to carry bedsheets along squatting on the huge concrete steps much earlier before the game started.  The stadium had huge pillars, round in shape – so huge that perhaps it would require four persons holding hands to round them.  They were the  impediments too as they would hide the view on some angles from the place one sat.  Sadly, there are not many Tests or ODIs being played here and crowds have started dwindling – Ranji trophy matches are played to empty stands.

 

M. A. Chidambaram Stadium, commonly known as the Chepauk Stadium, is named after businessman, industrialist, Cricket administrator – Muthiah Annamalai Chidambaram Chettiar (1918-2000) 

The first Test century scored at the ground was by the Englishman Cyril Walters.  Virender Sehwag holds the record for the highest score at the ground, 319 from 304 balls, which was made in 2008 against South Africa.  Sachin Tendulkar has scored  5 Test centuries at the ground. A century in each innings of a match has been achieved twice at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium.   Duleep Mendis made   105 in each innings  against India in 1982 and the Englishman Andrew Strauss scored 123 and 108 in 2008.  Mahendra Singh Dhoni scored 224 in the 1st test against Australia  - Karun Nair made a triple century and the recent century was scored by Ravichandran Ashwin against England in Feb 2021. 14 ODI centuries have been made at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium. The first of these was scored by the Australian Geoff Marsh in Reliance Cup 1987.Saeed Anwar holds the record for the highest ODI scored at the ground with 194, from 146 deliveries against India in 1997. 

Jaya Sharma and Suzie Bates have scored centuries in Women’s ODIs at Chepauk. 

MA Chidambaram became the Vice-President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in India in 1956, President from 1960–61 to 1962-63 and treasurer for about twenty years. He was the head of Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) for 32 years. He was also the President of All India Lawn Tennis Association from 1963 to 1966. He played a significant role in the negotiations between the TNCA and the Madras Cricket Club over the construction of a stadium on the club's ground in Chepauk. Completed in 1980, this stadium was later named M. A. Chidambaram Stadium in his honour. He was also an honorary life member of MCC, the Marylebone Cricket Club. 

Now the stadium is undergoing another facelift with the pavilion portion having been demolished totally – sooner, there would be newer infrastructure – whether, it would enliven the feelings of Cricket fans, in the manner it used to during those Pongal days would remain a big Q!

 
An avid fan- S. Sampathkumar
25th Dec 2021. 

India wins U19 Cricket Asia Cup

The good news is India has won U19 Asia Cup – Pathirana delivered a yorker, which was neatly dispatched by Angkrish Raghuvanshi.  Heard these names before ? 

Everyone would appreciate the tactical brilliance of King Mahendra Singh Dhoni - Chennai Super Kings (CSK) clearly were not the favourites though they outperformed expectations in both legs of IPL 2021.  CSK franchise after the auction, added uncapped Sri Lankan cricketers Matheesha Pathirana and Maheesh Theekshana ! 

Matheesha Pathirana had been in news earlier – those seeing him would feel that Slinga Malinga perhaps bowled more of over the arms .. .. last time in 2020 U19 WC,  Sri Lanka slumped to a 90-run defeat in the opener of the tournament, Pathirana’s delivery brought the Lankans a record. In the fourth over of India’s innings, who   the 17-year-old pitched the ball short which went past Jaiswal’s right shoulder and behind to the wicketkeeper.  It was  clocked 108 mph on the speed gun (a sensational 175 kmph)!!, but later it was revealed that the reading turned out to be a technical error.

 

Today,  at Dubai there was no magic.  Srilanka won the toss, took the wrong decision of batting first and tottered at 106/9 when rain stopped play.  India scored the revised tgarget of 102 with ease with 63 balls remaining.   Lankan wickets kept tumbling from 4/1; 37/4; 57/7 and 9^th wicket fell at 106 !  following that disciplined bowling, a neat innings by  Raghuvanshi who collected a half-century,  helped India clinch their eighth U19 Asia Cup title at the Dubai International Stadium.   Vicky Ostwal picked  three wickets including two in a single over.   The rain-marred final was reduced to 38 overs after a two-hour interruption. In eight editions of the U-19 Asia Cup, India have now won it eight times, which includes a shared trophy in 2012. – do you know the only other winner – it is Afganisthan !!! 

The Asia Cup Under-19 Asia Cup is a cricket tournament organised by the ACC for Under-19 teams from its member nations. It was first held in 1989 in Bangladesh where India won the tournament. The second edition was played after 14 years in 2003 in Pakistan where India retained their title The 3rd edition was played in Malaysia in 2012 where the trophy was shared by India and Pakistan after the final was tied. The fourth edition was held in 2013/14 in UAE which was won by India. The fifth edition was held in Sri Lanka in December 2016 and was won by India too. The sixth edition was held in November 2017 in Malaysia, which was won by Afghanistan by 185 run from Pakistan. The seventh edition was held in September & October 2018 in Bangladesh, which was won by India by 144 run from Sri Lanka. The eight edition was held in September 2019 in Sri Lanka & India retained their title.   

For those interested, in 1989 – the Indian U19 squad was : Dhruva Pandove, Ajay Jadeja, Vinod Kambli, Ranjib Biswal ©, Prince Sourav Ganguly, Bhupinder Singh, Ashish Kapoor, Abbas Ali Khan+, Jatin Paranjape, Samir Mehra & Gyanendra Pandey. 

In 2^nd edition 2003 – the team was : Robin Uthappa, Shivakant Shukla, Rakesh Solanki, Ambati Rayudu ©,  Suresh Raina, Avinash Yadav, Sunny Singh, Dinesh Karthik †, Irfan Pathan, Piyush Chawla & Vikram Singh 

Today, the team was : Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Harnoor Singh, Shaikh Rasheed, Nishant Sindhu, Yash Dhull (c), Raj Bawa, Kaushal Tambe, Aaradhya Yadav †, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Vicky Ostwal &  Ravi Kumar. 

The first Asia cup (not U19) was held in 1984 in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates where the council's offices were based (until 1995).  The inaugural version was won by India  – there were only 3 matches.  India defeated Sri Lanka and Pakistan with Surinder Khanna being the hero and Lanka defeated Pak in the other match.  Incidentally Kapil Dev did not play – Sunil Gavaskar was the Captain. 

With regards – S. Sampathkumar
31.12.2021 

Marina visitors - building sand castle !!

ஆத்தோரம் மணலெடுத்து என்ற பாடல் ஞாபகம் உள்ளதா ? 

There were thousands of people along the Marine beach busy in many activities including taking selfies but this youth Ayyanar was otherwise busy.. read on !!  

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever ~ and one such is ‘Marina beach’ known for its pristine beautiful sandy shores -   the famous Marina beach offers intriguing things – most important of course is the waves of Bay of Bengal and the sandy shores.  

Ever played building sand castles !  .. ..  may not exactly be the game for modern Kids  !!!  -  The resources were less i.e., the amount spent for entertainment was not high – so more of nature and natural products into every game they played.  People would remember their childhood, the locality they grew – the river beds and more. The river beds were perennial source of entertainment and tranquilty.  In Chennai, it was the beach, the sea-shore which provided the serene surrounding.  

“வீட்டைக் கட்டிப்பார், கல்யாணம் பண்ணிப் பார்” எனப் பழமொழி கேட்டு இருப்பீர்கள் !!  விசுவின் மணல் கயிறு படம் மனதில் ஆடலாம்.  முன்பெல்லாம் பீச் மணலில் சிறுவர் சிறுமியர் மணல் வீடு கட்டி விளையாடுவர் !

படம்: வாழ்க்கை வாழ்வதற்கே  என்ற படத்தில்  PB ஸ்ரீனிவாஸ்+ P சுசீலா குரலில் விசுவநாதன்-ராமமூர்த்தி இசையில், கண்ணதாசனின் வரிகளில் - ஜெமினி, சரோஜா தேவி நடிப்பில் :

ஆத்தோரம் மணலெடுத்து - அழகழகாய் வீடு கட்டி

தோட்டமிட்டு செடி வளர்த்து - ஜோராக குடியிருந்தோம்

 

The waves may over-run and destroy the castles, yet children would happily construct their dream houses closer to the shore !  

Today evening observed an youth busy building sand house – in a few minutes this beautiful decorated house called “Tamil Nadu” was ready ! – on the sides were written Madurai !  .. .. enquired – his name is Ayyanar, had come from Villupuram with hopes of bathing in Bay of Bengal – Police are not allowing bathing, as in recent times there have been deaths due to drowning ..  

To utilize the opportunity of his visit, he built a grand sandhouse – the house may not even stand for a day but this Mason from Vizhupuram did conquer the hearts of those who saw it  - and that included Yours truly who took a few photos and shared it to the phone of the creator 

With regards – S. Sampathkumar
12^th Dec 2021.