The titled complainant has preferred the present complaint against the titled opposite parties (for short, jointly as the OP insurers and singularly as the OP1 & the OP2) at the alleged non-disclosure of the true and exact terms of the insurance by the OP insurers' agent at the time of purchase of the policy and also on account of non-receipt of the related policy-document resulting into his failure to avail-of the mandatorily available facility/ provision pertaining to the 15-day free look-in period. Further, the complainant alleges having purchased the policy # 0108286116 from the OP insurers in May' 2020 at a one time premium only @ Rs.4,18,000/- as duly advised by their agent Sh. Vinod Bamboria who has also assured delivery of the policy documents at the very recorded address of the complainant but he however had not received the policy and its collateral till the filing of the present complaint.

2.        Somehow, the complainant could only know of the actual premium payment term in annual mode @ Rs.4,00,000/- per annum for 10 years through the OP insurers telephonic reminders for the next premium. The complainant immediately contacted the OP insurers through e-mail and lodged his complaint, in vivid detail. The OP however advised that the complainant could only have canceled his policy to get refund of premium within the 15-day free look in period within the receipt of the policy that stood delivered to him on 11.06.2020 so in case the policy gets canceled now on account of non-payment of the current year premium the first premium amount shall get confiscated as per the terms of the policy.

3.        The complainant contacted Vinod Bamboria who however simply shrugged away all his responsibility and repeated the above terms of the policy in the words of the OP and even blocked his telephone number to avoid further contact. At this, the complainant got the legal notice served upon the OP insurers but even that did not move them out of their unfair stand and thus prompted the present complaint seeking refund of his already paid premium of Rs.4,18,000/- along with up to date interest besides to Rs.50,000/- each as compensation for harassment/mental-agony/deficiency in service, as well as to Rs.10,000/- as cost of litigation, in the interest of justice.

4.       Lastly, in order to strengthen the prosecution of his complaint, the complainant has produced:

            i)       Ex.C1 – Duly Attested Affidavit;

ii)      Ex.C2 – E-mail Reply by OP confirming dispatch of policy on 08.06.2020 through DTDC Courier and its confirmed delivery on 11.06.2020 through DTDC Courier;

iii)     Ex.C3 – Copy Legal Notice; 

iv)     Ex.C4 - Statement of complainant's Bank A/c;

v)      Written Arguments not submitted and instead DTDC on-line certificate submitted on 18.08.2022 during oral-arguments that D71060813 consignment was not delivered on 11.06.2020 on account of the Covid-19 Pandemic Lock-down                             

5.       The OP Insurers, in compliance to the Commission’s Summons, appeared through its counsel and filed their joint written-reply stating denial to all the contents of the complaint except those expressly admitted therein. And, preliminary objecting therein its maintainability being false, malicious and incorrect and in the absence of cause of action favoring the complainant and deficiency in service on their part. The complainant has filed a false and frivolous complaint that does not fall under the definition of one consumer dispute and thus has not been entitled to any relief as the proposal was duly explained and he has signed the same after having understood the terms of the policy and its legal implications etc. On merits, the OP have emphasized that the insured could have opted for cancellation of the policy within the 15 day free look-in period of the receipt of the policy-document that was dispatched to him through DTDC Courier on 08.06.2020 and received by him on 11.06.2020 but he never opted for cancellation of the policy and thus presently he is stopped from opting his discretion to cancellation. The OP insurers have also quoted many senior courts rulings/judgments to justify their stand. We have respectfully gone through all these quoted judgments and shall peruse these during the course of consideration/adjudication at the appropriate time in line with the respective relevancy of these with the present situation. Lastly, the OP have repeated their pleadings in their para-wise reply and have prayed for dismissal of the present complaint with costs and have also produced supporting documents as:

i)       Ex.OPW1/A – Duly Attested Affidavit of the OP insurers' Senior Manger (Legal) - Sh.Arindam Mishra, along with evidentiary documents;

ii)      Ex.OP1 - Welcome Letter, Policy-document along with terms and conditions etc.;

iii)     Ex.OP2 – Copies of e-mail correspondence exchanged between the two sides.

6.       We have examined the available documents/evidence as available on the records so as to statutorily interpret the meaning and purpose of each document and also the scope of adverse inference on account of some of the documents ignored to be produced by the contesting litigants against the back-drop of the arguments as put forth by the learned counsels for their respective litigants. We observe that the lone point of contention prompting the present dispute has been the non-availment of the 15 day free look-in period by the complainant for cancellation of his related policy upon receipt of the policy-documents at the complainant's recorded address. The OP insurers have firmly pleaded that the Policy Documents were dispatched to the complainant on the 8th of June'2020 through the DTDC Courier and were delivered to him on the 11th of June' 2020 and the complainant had implicitly accepted the policy qua its terms as he had never opted its cancellation within the 15 day free look-in period as prescribed for the purposes of cancellation. However, the OP insurers have failed to place/produce forth any cogent evidence of delivery of policy-documents at the complainant's address on 11th June' 2020 or even on any other date. On the other hand, the complainant has been right from the very beginning has been pleading non-receipt of policy-documents so as to have enabled him to know of terms (annual premium-payment) of the policy and/or to have canceled the same. The complainant has successfully placed on record a copy of the on-line certificate by the DTDC Courier duly certifying that the consignment containing the policy documents (No. D71060813) was not delivered to the addressee on 11.06.2020 on account of the continuing Lock-downs Covid-19 pandemic. Thus, we find that the complainant could never have the prescribed opportunity to exercise his option to cancellation of the related-policy till the demand of the next year premium by the OP and he had immediately exercised his option to cancellation, there and then. So, we are of the considered opinion that the complainant has been within his legal rights to have canceled the policy, at present, and get refund with interest etc., of the first premium, as paid by him.      

7.       Thus, we set-aside the OP insurers' arbitrary refusal to cancel the related policy and refund the receipted premium since that amounts to employ of unfair practices and also leads to affirm deficiency in service on their part and that surely attracts an adverse statutory award.                                                                    

8.       In the light of the all above, we ORDER the OP insurers to refund and pay back the receipted first premium of Rs.4,00,000/- (net of taxes/levies and others etc) along with interest @ 6% PA from the date of receipt till actually paid besides to pay an amount of Rs.10,000/- in lump sum as compensation and cost of present litigation within 45 days of receipt of the certified copy of these orders otherwise the aggregated awarded amount shall attract an additional interest @ 3% PA from date of the present complaint till paid, in full.                                                   

9.         The complaint could not be decided within the stipulated period due to heavy pendency of Court Cases, vacancies in the office and due to pandemic of Covid-19.

10.      Copy of the order be communicated to the parties free of charges. After compliance, file be consigned to record. 

                                                          (Naveen Puri)

                                                                 President.

ANNOUNCED:                                 (R.S.Sukhija)

AUG. 18, 2022.                                           Member.

YP.