Sri Shyamal Gupta, Member

This Appeal is preferred against the order dated 22-07-2016, passed by the Ld. District Forum, Kolkata-II (Central) in CC No. 46/2016, whereof the complaint has been allowed.

Case of the Complainant, in short, is that, the insured vehicle met an accident on 24-11-2014 as a result of which the said car got badly damaged.  Thereafter, Complainant applied for settlement of his claim for a sum of Rs. 2,65,000/- from the OPs which, however, was repudiated by them vide letter dated 24-12-2014.  Therefore, the instant case was filed.

OP Nos. 1 to 3 by filing WV submitted that on receipt of information of alleged accident, they deputed a Surveyor, who submitted his report dated 15-12-2014.  As per the report of the Surveyor, the damage to the vehicle was not in sync with the nature of accident as stated by the Complainant in his claim form.  The Surveyor made an enquiry qua the same vide his letter dated 27-11-2014.  In reply, vide an e-mail dated 01-12-2014, the Complainant modified its cause of loss as stated earlier.  As per the new version, after impact, the occupants left the vehicle unattended and when returned, they saw the vehicle was badly damaged with bricks and sticks.  Though, basis estimate provided by repairer, Surveyor had assessed the loss to the tune of Rs. 4,90,481/-, as per the pleading of the Complainant , it allegedly incurred expenses for a sum of Rs. 2,65,000/- towards repair.  After repair of the vehicle no opportunity was given to the Surveyor to finalize the quantum.  Taking all such facts into consideration, the instant claim was repudiated. 

Decision with reasons

Despite due service of notice upon the Appellant on 24-10-2016, it did not turn up to defend its case before this Commission. 

The Appellant raised several pertinent questions in respect of the claim filed by the Respondent.  Since the Respondent remained conspicuous by his absence, no satisfactory explanation to the same could be ascertained although the same was extremely vital for proper adjudication of the matter. 

The Respondent claimed Rs. 2,65,000/- from the Appellant Insurance Company as insurance benefit.  However, the Ld. District Forum on scrutiny of the bill found that the Respondent incurred an expenditure of Rs. 1,79,424/- for repairing the said vehicle.  In view of this, what prompted the Respondent to claim Rs. 2,65,000/- is not clear to us. 

Similarly, we notice severe discrepancy in respect of the sequence of events that led to the accident so narrated in the FIR vis-à-vis email of the Respondent.  Such dissimilarity too raise eyebrows. 

Considering all these facts, we are inclined to remand the case to the Ld. District Forum for fresh adjudication of the matter.  The Forum below must solicit due clarification in respect of all the pertinent questions raised by the Appellants in their WV and thereafter, decide the fate of the case on merit.

The Appeal, thus, succeeds in part.

Hence,

O R D E R E D

The Appeal stands allowed ex parte against the Respondent in part.  The impugned order is hereby set aside.  Parties to appear before the Ld. District Forum on 06-08-2018 for fresh adjudication of the matter.

Let the LCR be returned to the Ld. District Forum along with a copy of this order at once.