A Vahan portal entry alone cannot establish insurance coverage or impose liability on the insurer.

The Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Unakoti District, awarded the claimants ₹5,11,000 with 6% annual interest against the insurer, applying a pay-and-recover direction because of the absence of a driving licence.

The insurer challenged its liability, contending that the offending vehicle was not insured on the accident date.

Although the Vahan 4.0 portal showed a policy entry valid from 8 August 2017 to 7 August 2018, the DTO stated that insurance particulars were manually entered from documents produced by the vehicle owner and that the registering authority could not verify their genuineness.

The owner produced only a photocopy of an insurance certificate and did not produce the original or otherwise prove the policy.

Whether the portal entry, without proof of a valid insurance certificate, established that the vehicle was insured with the appellant on the accident date.

Whether the insurer could be held liable to satisfy the award, or whether payment was the responsibility of the vehicle owner.

The judgment did not cite any specific statutory provision or precedent.

It applied the principles that the vehicle owner bears responsibility for compensating victims, while an insurer’s obligation to indemnify the owner depends on the vehicle being covered by a valid insurance policy; a portal entry alone does not establish coverage where the underlying insurance certificate is not proved.

The insurer denied that the vehicle was covered on the accident date, and the DTO’s evidence explained that the portal information was manually entered from documents supplied by the owner, without verification of their genuineness.

The owner’s photocopy was not proved, and the owner neither produced the original certificate nor sought a certified copy or other evidence to establish the policy.

The Court therefore held that the Tribunal had no sufficient basis to impose liability on the insurer merely from the portal entry and had erroneously fastened liability on it.

The Court modified the award so that the vehicle owner, rather than the insurer, must pay the claimants the total compensation, with 6% annual interest from 19 May 2018 until payment, within three months of the judgment.

The appeal and any pending applications were disposed of.