Tractor-trolley carrying bricks does not void insurance liability, rules Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court has ruled that an insurance company cannot avoid paying compensation merely because a tractor involved in an accident was pulling a trolley loaded with bricks, holding that the principal cause of the accident remains the movement of the insured tractor and not the trolley attached to it.

In a judgment delivered on May 29, 2026, Justice Anish Dayal dismissed an appeal filed by Reliance General Insurance Company challenging a Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (MACT) award of ₹49 lakh to the family of a man killed in a road accident in Haryana in 2010.

Reliance General Insurance, which had insured the tractor, argued that the offending vehicle was a tractor attached to a trolley carrying bricks and was therefore being used for commercial purposes rather than ‘agricultural purposes’. The insurance company said only the tractor stood insured under the policy and not the attached trolley.

Rejecting the contention, the High Court held that the focus must remain on the vehicle that actually causes the accident. Referring to recent Supreme Court precedent, the court observed that the accident was caused by the movement of the tractor and the attached trolley had no independent identity as a motor vehicle in such circumstances.

“The principal cause of the accident is the movement of the tractor on the road,” the court said, adding that the fact that the trolley was carrying bricks could not by itself provide a successful insurance defence in a case arising from alleged abrupt braking and a sudden turn.

The case arose from a fatal accident on August 15, 2010, near Bawal in Haryana. Adarsh Kumar Katiyar, 53, was driving from Jaipur to Delhi when his car collided with the tractor-trolley carrying bricks after it allegedly applied brakes suddenly while taking a turn. He died of injuries.