Section 191
Direct action against insurer or other person providing financial security.
The Merchant Shipping Act, 2025
About this Act
An Act to consolidate and amend the law relating to merchant shipping to ensure compliance with India's obligation under the maritime treaties and international instruments to which India is a party and also to ensure the development of Indian shipping and efficient maintenance of Indian mercantile marine in a manner best suited to serve the national interest and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.
(1) The insurer or other person providing financial security for the ship owner&039;s liability for pollution damage may be directly liable for any claim for compensation for such damage which may be brought directly against such insurer or other person.
(2) The insurer or other person providing financial security against whom a claim is made directly may, even if the owner is not entitled to limit his liability under section 181, avail himself of such limits of liability as specified in the said section.
(3) The insurer or other person providing financial security may further avail himself of the defences (other than the bankruptcy or winding up of the company) which the ship owner himself would have been entitled to invoke and such insurer or other person may avail himself of the defence that the pollution damage resulted from the wilful misconduct of the ship owner himself but such insurer or other person shall not avail himself of any other defence which he might have been entitled to invoke in the proceedings brought by the ship owner against him.
(4) The insurer or other person providing financial security shall in any case have the right to require the ship owner to be joined in the proceedings.
(5) Any sum provided by insurance or by other financial security maintained in accordance with section 188 shall be available exclusively for the satisfaction of claims under this Chapter. In page 69, line 24, of Act No. 24 of 2025, for the word “himself such”, read “himself of such”, Vide Corrigenda dated 30 th September, 2025, published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part. II, Sec. 1.
(2) The insurer or other person providing financial security against whom a claim is made directly may, even if the owner is not entitled to limit his liability under section 181, avail himself of such limits of liability as specified in the said section.
(3) The insurer or other person providing financial security may further avail himself of the defences (other than the bankruptcy or winding up of the company) which the ship owner himself would have been entitled to invoke and such insurer or other person may avail himself of the defence that the pollution damage resulted from the wilful misconduct of the ship owner himself but such insurer or other person shall not avail himself of any other defence which he might have been entitled to invoke in the proceedings brought by the ship owner against him.
(4) The insurer or other person providing financial security shall in any case have the right to require the ship owner to be joined in the proceedings.
(5) Any sum provided by insurance or by other financial security maintained in accordance with section 188 shall be available exclusively for the satisfaction of claims under this Chapter. In page 69, line 24, of Act No. 24 of 2025, for the word “himself such”, read “himself of such”, Vide Corrigenda dated 30 th September, 2025, published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part. II, Sec. 1.