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Insurance firm told to pay Rs. 50K for rejecting vehicle theft claim

District consumer disputes redressal forum, Chandigarh, has directed an insurance company to pay Rs. 50,000 as compensation to a Nayagoan resident for deficient services, after her claim for a stolen vehicle was denied.

Disposing of a complaint filed by Saleena Rani, a resident of Naya Gaon, district SAS Nagar, the consumer forum also directed United India Insurance Company Limited, to pay Rs. 7,000 as cost of litigation.

The insurance company has also been ordered to pay Rs. 4.99 lakh to Tata Motors Finance Limited as the vehicle was under hypothecation with it.

The consumer forum presided over by Rajan Dewan on July 17, held the insurance company deficient in services and guilty of unfair trade practices for rejecting the claim on the grounds that the vehicle was not registered within one month of purchase.

The consumer forum’s order said: “Even if vehicle was not registered within the prescribed period, the insurance company could not have repudiated theclaim. Otherwise also, there was no nexus between the theft of the vehicle and non-holding of a valid registration certificate. The registration of the vehicle and the incident of theft, were two absolutely different matters having no link what so ever... thus by repudiating the genuine claim of the complainant the insurance company certainly committed grave deficiency in service and unfair trade practice.”

THE THEFT

In her representation, Rani had submitted that on May 5, 2012, her Indigo ECS (LX TC 111) car was stolen from outside a guest house in Delhi. A case in this regard was also registered.

She claimed to have lodged a claim for the stolen vehicle which was repudiated by the insurance company, in spite of all relevant documents being supplied to the insurance company.

Article referred: http://www.hindustantimes.com/punjab/chandigarh/insurance-firm-told-to-pay-50k-for-rejecting-vehicle-theft-claim/article1-1247020.aspx

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