Can University be considered State? Supreme Court notice in Petition by HNLU

Murali Krishnan July 1 2019

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Can a University be considered an office of Central government or State government for fixing responsibility under Motor Vehicles Act, 1988. The Supreme Court will decide this issue in a petition filed by Hidayatullah National Law University (HNLU).

A Bench of Justices NV Ramana and Ajay Rastogi said that it will hear the matter and issued notice to Insurance Company ICICI Lombard.

Advocates Aniruddha P Mayee and  Selvin Raja appeared for HNLU.

The case concerns a motor accident death caused by a vehicle belonging to the HNLU. One Vineet Shrivastava, was hit by Motor Vehicle Bus owned by HNLU. The Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal awarded a compensation of Rs.10,81,700 to the claimants. While passing the award, the Tribunal fastened the liability upon the driver, owner (HNLU) and insurer (ICICI) of the vehicle jointly and severally.

ICICI preferred an appeal to the Chhattisgarh High Court against the MACT judgment. The appeal of the insurance company was mainly on two grounds. First, that the vehicle belonging to HNLU did not have valid permit at the time of accident to operate the Bus as a passenger carrying vehicle and secondly, the driver of offending vehicle did not have proper licence at the time of accident.

Therefore, it was submitted that the insurance company should be exonerated of its liability and the liability should have been fastened upon the owner and driver of the vehicle.

On the issue permit, the question before the High Court was surrounding Section 66(3) of the Motor Vehicles Act. As per the said Section, any transport vehicle owned by the Central Government or a State Government and used for Government purposes unconnected with any commercial enterprise, is exempted from the requirement of having a permit.

Thus, the question before the High Court was whether the University can be considered State so as to avail the exemption under Section 66(3) of the Motor Vehicles Act.

The High Court noted that HNLU was established under an Act of the State government known as Hidayatullah National University of Law Chhattisgarh, Act, 2003. Be that as it may, the High Court proceeded to observe that HNLU is an autonomous body being run and maintained by an independent body not connected and controlled by the State government in any manner except for periodical funds given by the State Govt for smooth functioning of the university.

Except for receiving periodical funds, there is no control of the State government over the said establishment. Further, HNLU does not impart free education and it is charging a substantial amount as fees from the students who are taking education from the University. Thus, under no circumstance, can the university be said to be an office of the Central government or for that matter of the State government nor can the use of the vehicle be said to be for government purpose when the accident occurred, the High Court concluded.

Based on the same, the High Court allowed the appeal filed by ICICI Lombard and ordered that the insurance company can recover from HNLU, the compensation amount paid to the claimant.

HNLU has now appealed to the Supreme Court against this High Court judgment.

When the matter was taken up today, the Court remarked that a judgment of Supreme Court squarely states that University is “State”.

It, therefore, said that it will hear the matter and issued notice to the respondent. Advocate Binay Kumar Das accepted notice on behalf of respondent.