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The expression ‘owner’ in the Motor Vehicles Act means the person in whose name the motor vehicle stands registered. The court held that an owner who has transferred the vehicle but if the records of the registering authority hold him as owner he would not be absolved of his liability. The vehicle which was the involved in the matter had passed several hands. Following an accident when a claim was made, the parties claimed that they had sold the vehicle to another person but as the vehicle was uninsured the tribunal held that the owner in the records would be jointly and severally liable together with the driver of the vehicle. But on appeal the High Court set aside the findings and rulings of the tribunal and said that when there was valid evidence of the consecutive sale of the vehicle by the registered owner holding the owner whose name is in the records responsible for awards won’t be good law, then the last owner who was saddled with the liability and approached the apex court. The apex court referred to Section 2(30) of the Motor Vehicles Act which says that when a motor vehicle is subject of an agreement of lease, purchase, hire and hypothecation the person in possession of the vehicle would be the owner. The underlying principle behind the above section is to save victims or families of victims from getting burdened by trails of successive transfers in cases of accidents or deaths involving motor vehicles, especially to save them from undue delay or uncertainty of getting the compensation. In the present case the first respondent was made liable for payment of compensation.
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