Skip to main content

Insurance firm pulled up for inventing grounds to reject claim

Birla Sun Life Insurance Company Ltd has been pulled up by a consumer forum here for "inventing grounds" to reject the claims of a woman whose deceased husband had been insured with it.

The New Delhi Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, presided by C K Chaturvedi, also asked the insurance company to settle the claims of two policies and also pay a compensation of Rs 50,000 to the man's wife.

The forum, also comprising its members S R Chaudhary and Ritu Garodia, said the company was "just inventing grounds to defeat the just claim" and asked it to settle the death claim filed by Punjab resident Rashpal Kaur for her late husband.

"We...Find that opposite party (insurance company) is just inventing grounds to defeat the just claim. His (man) going to the school upto primary or leaving it, or his being a farmer etc. Are no grounds to deny the death claim," the forum said.

"We hold the insurance company guilty of arbitrarily repudiating the claim and guilty of deficiency in services," it said.

It said that it was for the insurance company to verify all facts before giving insurance cover and having accepted his certificate, it cannot be allowed to repudiate the claim.

"None of the grounds amounts to suppression of material facts nor has the opposite party been able to discharge burden of proving suppression of facts by leading cogent evidence," the forum said.

According to the woman, the company was not releasing the claims of the two policies of her husband who was insured with it, of Rs 5 lakh and Rs 1.5 lakh respectively.

The company had rejected the claim on the ground that the man's school certificates showing his date of birth was found fake by an investigation conducted by the insurer.

In its reply before the forum, the company had also stated that the man was a semi-literate farmer, alcoholic and unemployed. However, no investigation report was placed on record.

Arbitration referred: http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/insurance-firm-pulled-up-for-inventing-grounds-to-reject-claim-114060600975_1.html

Comments

Most viewed this month

Partition proceedings are vitiated even if single co-sharer is not made party or is not served in accordance with law

Cause Title :  Bhagwant Singh vs  Financial Commissioner (Appeals) Punjab, Chandigarh,  CWP-2132-2018 (O&M), High Court Of Punjab & Haryana At Chandigarh Date of Judgment/Order : 31.08.2022 Corum : Hon’ble Mr. Justice Sudhir Mittal Background A large parcel of land was owned by the Nagar Panchayat. Thereafter, some of the co-sharers sold their shares to third parties including the petitioners herein. On 22.11.1995, respondents No.3 to 5 filed an application for partition of the land. The petitioners were not impleaded as parties.  On completion of proceedings, sanad was issued on 28.08.1996. Vide two separate sale deeds dated 28.05.2008 respondents No.3 and 5 sold some portion in favour of respondent No.6 and 7. These respondents sought implementation of the sanad resulting in issuance of warrants of possession dated 05.06.2008. Allegedly, it was then that the petitioners realized that joint land had been partitioned and that proceedings h...

Power of Attorney holder can also file cheque bounce cases: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has held that a criminal complaint in a cheque bounce case can be filed and pursued by a person who holds a power of attorney (PoA) on behalf of the complainant. A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam gave the "authoritative" pronouncement on the issue, referred to it by a division bench in view of conflicting judgements of some high courts and the apex court. "We are of the view that the power of attorney holder may be allowed to file, appear and depose for the purpose of issue of process for the offence punishable under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act (which deals with cheque bounce cases)," the bench, also comprising justices Ranjana Prakash Desai and Ranjan Gogoi, said. The bench, in its judgement, said, "...we clarify the position and answer the questions in the following manner: "Filing of complaint petition under Section 138 of Negotiable Instruments Act through PoA holder is perfectly legal...

Christian who reconverts as Hindu SC will get quota benefits

Amid the controversy over “ghar wapsi”, the Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that a person who “reconverts” from Christianity to Hinduism shall be entitled to reservation benefits if his forefathers belonged to a Scheduled Caste and the community accepts him after “reconversion”. Citing articles by B R Ambedkar and James Massey, and reports by Mandal Commission and Chinappa Commission, the court said: “There has been detailed study to indicate the Scheduled Caste persons belonging to Hindu religion, who had embraced Christianity with some kind of hope or aspiration, have remained socially, educationally and economically backward.” The bench of Justices Dipak Misra and V Gopala Gowda held that a person shall not be deprived of reservation benefits if he decides to “reconvert” to Hinduism and adopts the caste that his forefathers originally belonged to just because he was born to Christian parents or has a Christian spouse. Expanding the scope of a previous Constitution benc...