Registered car owner to be equally liable for accident if not changed registration details after the sale

22 Feb 2018

Registered carowner to be equally liable for accident if not changed registration detailsafter the sale

In the recent judgment of Naveen Kumar V/s Vijay Kumar & ors.[1]  the Supreme Court pronounced that even after the sale of the vehicles if registration details are not changed and if the accident takes place, the original owner i.e. registered owner will equally liable to compensate the aggrieved parties along with the possessory owner or driver of the car during accident.

Here in this present case, Vijay Kumar was the original registered owner of the vehicle (i.e. Car), which he sold to another person and that person sold the same vehicle to third person and the chain continued when that third person sold the same vehicle  to Naveen Kumar, who claimed that he had sold that vehicle to Meer Singh. On the day of accident the car was in the possession of Meer Singh but driven by another person.

The Tribunal held the registered owner i.e. Vijay Kumar jointly and severally liable together with the driver of the vehicle. This very decision of the Tribunal was changed by the High Court not considering the registered owner equally liable to compensate.  However,the Hon'ble Supreme Court upheld the decision of the Tribunal by extending joint liability of Vijay Kumar i.e. the original owner of the Vehicle to compensate.

 



[1]2018 SCCOnline SC 84



Recent Blogs