Insurance claims not time-bound: Panel

MUMBAI: The Maharashtra State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission recently held that filing an insurance claim late cannot be the reason for rejecting it.

The commission , while upholding a district forum’s order, directed The Oriental Insurance Company Ltd to pay the widow of a man who died in a 2006 accident the entire claim of Rs 1 lakh plus a compensation of Rs 46,000 even though the claim had been filed well past the one-month ‘deadline’. The commission held that the deadline was not a “mandatory condition”, but a kind of directive.

The commission dismissed the appeal after it observed that during the arguments, the insurance company did not point out the penal provisions for non-compliance of the policy condition.

Referring to past orders, the The Maharashtra State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission observed , while hearing a insurance claim case, that deadline for insurance claim was not a “mandatory condition”, but a kind of directive.

Shri Vitthal Sahakari Sakhar Kharkhana Ltd had subscribed to a Group Janata Personal Accident Insurance Policy to provide insurance cover to members in their factory. During the term of the policy, one of the members, Vitthal Gawande, died in a road accident on December 31, 2006. The insurance claim was filed on January 18, 2008.

The insurance company repudiated the insurance claim on the grounds of non-compliance of terms and conditions incorporated in the policy document. Aggrieved with the repudiation, in 2009, Vitthal Sahakari Sakhar Kharkhana alongwith Gavande’s wife Rani Gavande filed a consumer complaint before the district forum in Solapur.