A Maruti van ambulance having a yellow numberplate, being driven by a driver having a LMV licence while driving gets drowned in sudden flood.The driver and another employee of a hospital both dies with drowning ( As such there was no accident- the police report as well as the postmortem report confirms that).
Is the insurance company liable for compensation to the decease( driver and another person) ,with the fact that :
1) officially the driver was having an invalid licence( although he could have driven a Maruti van private vehicle with that LMV licence) he ideally should have the licence of driving a medium passenger vehicle.
2) The fitness certificate of the vehicle also had expired 5 months back , although the vehicle was regularly serviced at authorised service station, it just got out of mind to renew the fitness certificate.
The insurance company has denied to register the claim saying the driver did not have a valid licence.The vehicle was in water completely for more than 24 hours and the repairing cost of the vehicle is about a lac Rs.
Can any expert please guide and comment with relevant references and judgements
thanks and regards,
