Haryana

Karnal

CC/78/2016

Aneja City Heart School - Complainant(s)

Versus

Iffco-Tokio General Insurance Company Limited - Opp.Party(s)

Raj Pal

10 Jan 2018

ORDER

BEFORE THE DISTRICT CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL FORUM KARNAL. 

                                                     Complaint No. 78 of 2016

                                                    Date of instt. 14.03.2016

                                                     Date of decision10.01.2018

 

Aneja City Heart School, VPO. Indri Tehsil Indri District Karnal through its Principal.

                                                                                 ……..Complainant.

                                        Versus

 

IFFCO-TOKIO General Insurance Co. Ltd., IFFCO House, 3^rd floor, 34, Nehru Place, New Delhi through its Manager.

                                                   

     ..…Opposite Party.

 

 Complaint u/s 12  of the Consumer Protection Act 1986.

 

Before     Sh. Jagmal Singh…….President.

                Ms. Veena Rani……….Member

                Sh.Anil Sharma…….Member.

 

Present: Shri Jaspal Singh Gandhi Adv. for the complainant.

              Shri A.K.Vohra Adocate for OPs.

              

               

                (JAGMAL SINGH, PRESIDENT)

 

 ORDER:

 

                This complaint has been filed by the complainant u/s 12 of the Consumer Protection Act 1986, on the averments that he got insured his bus bearing no.HR67-7723 from the OP, vide policy no.87449787 which was valid from 18.4.2014 to 17.4.2015 for insured amount of Rs.3,50,000/-. On 17.7.2014 the said vehicle has been totally burnt while in motion and in this regard he lodged a claim with the OP vide GD no. entry no.12(A) dated 27.7.2014 with Police Station Butana to get the claim against the said insurance policy but OP no.1 postpone the matter on one pretext or the other by giving false assurance. He deposited all the relevant documents to the official of OP. Thereafter, he visited the office of OP several times and requested to pay the claim but OP always postponed the matter on false assurance. He received a letter dated 3.3.2015, 21.9.2015 and 30.10.2015 vide which OP demanded some documents from complainant which has been duly provided by him but despite of that claim of the complainant has not been released by the OP. In this way there was deficiency in service on the part of the OP. Hence complainant filed the present complaint.

2.             Notice of the complaint was given to the OP, who appeared and filed written statement raising preliminary objections with regard to maintainability; locus standi and cause of action; jurisdiction and concealments of true and material facts. On merits, it has been submitted OP made several written request to the complainant to submit the required documents for settlement of the claim but inspite of repeated demands of the documents the complainant absolutely failed to submit the required documents, so it was found that the complainant is not interested in pursuing his claim and his claim was close due to Non-Compliance of Documents i.e. copy of driving license (smart card) of Mr. Gurnam Singh (valid on date of loss). It has further been submitted that the Surveyor had assessed the loss at Rs.2,25,000/- subjected to submission of documents by insured. As a matter of fact that the complainant was reminded time and again i.e. on 3.3.2015, 21.9.2015, 27.10.2015, 13.11.2015 and 11.2.2016 to supply the documents required by the OP, but the complainant absolutely failed to supply the same hence the claim of the complainant was repudiated due to non-compliance of documents. Moreover, the said School Bus was driven by Shri Gurnam Singh who has produced his driving license bearing no.7221/TV/Z/2011 valid upto 18.7.2014 which was issued on 17.2.2010 by the District Transport Officer, H.S. Road, Zunheboto, Nagaland. It is also necessary to mention here that as per circular dated 1.8.2014 issued by the Motor Vehicles Dept. Office of the Transport Commissioner, Kohima, Nagaland that all driving licenses issued by the State of Nagaland after 30^th October 2009 are issued only on Smart Card through the National Software SARTHI and can be viewed/verified online on national portal and issue of driving license on booklet form has been discontinued with effect therefrom. Thus, any license purported to be issued after 30.10.2009 on booklet form or any manual format other than smart card format is not genuine. Further, it was mandated upon all driving license holder having driving license on booklet form or any other manual format to get the driving license digitized and converted into Smart Card before 1.12.2014 after which driving licenses other than Smart Card shall be treated as cancelled. Hence the driving license of Shri Gurnam Singh issued on 19.7.2011 is invalid one in view of the abovesaid instructions of Transport Commissioner, Kohima, Nagaland. Hence there was no deficiency in service on the part of the OP and prayed for dismissal of the complaint.

3.             Complainant tendered into evidence his affidavit Ex.CW1/A, affidavit of Hans Raj Ex.CW2/A, affidavit of Vijay Aneja Ex.CW3/A and documents Ex.C1 to Ex.C12 and closed the evidence.

4.             On the other hand, OP tendered into evidence affidavit of Sanket Gupta Ex.O1 and documents Ex.O2 and Ex.O3 and closed the evidence.

5.             We have heard the learned counsel for both the parties and perused the case file carefully and have also gone through the evidence led by the parties.

6.             There is no dispute between the parties that complainant is owner of school bus no.HR-67/7723 which was insured from OP, vide policy no.87449787 valid from 18.4.2014 to 17.4.2015 for the insured amount of Rs.3,50,000/-. According to the complainant, on 17.7.2014, said bus has been totally burnt while in motion and in this regard the complainant lodged the report vide GD entry no.12(A) dated 27.7.2014 in Police Station Butana District Karnal and copy of the same is Ex.C-3. This fact has not been denied by the OP. The said GD was got recorded by the driver of the bus namely Gurnam Singh @ Roshan, who stated that on 17.7.2014 after repairing the self and wiring, he gone to village Manakmajra Gadian at about 9.00 p.m. for parking the bus and when he stopped the bus near the temple and got down from the bus, he noticed that smoke was coming out from the bus. He raised noise for calling the people from nearby and in the meantime, the bus caught fire. Many people who gathered there, extinguished the fire. The fire in the bus took place due to short circuit. These facts have not been disputed by the OP.

7.             The complainant made the claim with the OP but the same was denied vide letter dated 30.10.2015 Ex.C-6 vide which copy of driving licence (Smart card) of Mr. Gurnam Singh valid on date of loss has been demanded but due to supply of the same the claim was denied. The contention of the OP is that the driving licence of Gurnam Singh issued on 19.7.2011 by H.S. Road, Zunheboto (Nagaland) is invalid in view of the abovesaid instruction of Transport Commissioner, Kohima, Nagaland.

8.             The learned counsel for complainant argued that the bus caught fire due to short circuit and there was no role of the driver in this incident. He produced authority cited in 2003 (5) Supreme 69 (SC) titled as Jitender Kumar Versus Oriental Insurance Co. Ltd. & Anr., Civil Appeal no.4647 of 2003,  (Arising out of SLP (C) no.21910 of 2001) decided on 17.7.2003, the head note runs as under:-

        “Motor Vehicles Act, 1988-Section 149-Insurance Claim-Damage to vehicle due to a mechanical defect- No fault of driver-Can Insurance Company repudiate a claim made by owner of vehicle solely on ground the driver of vehicle did not hold a valid licence? (No)- Insurance Company could not have repudiated claim of appellant.”

This authority is fully applicable to the facts of the present complaint.  In the present case also the vehicle in question had got fired when the same was stopped after parking, therefore, the driver of the vehicle in question and no role in the incident because the incident took place due to short circuit. So, keeping in view this authority and the facts and circumstances of the present case, we are of the considered opinion that the OP has wrongly repudiated/closed the claim of the complainant on the ground that the driver was not having valid driving licence on the date of incident, hence the OP is deficient in providing services to the complainant.

9.             It is pertinent to mention here that the OP has mentioned in his reply that the surveyor had assessed the loss at Rs.2,25,000/- but the OP has neither placed the report of the surveyor on the file nor tendered his evidence, therefore, the OP has failed to prove on the file that how the surveyor has assessed the said loss. According to complainant the IDV value of the vehicle in question as per insurance policy Ex.C-12 is Rs.3,50,000/-. So in our opinion the complainant is entitled for the insured amount of Rs.3,50,000/-.

10.           Thus, as a sequel to abovesaid discussions, we allow the complaint and direct the OP to pay Rs.3,50,000/- to the complainant subject to the condition of providing the subrogation letter, transfer/cancellation report of R.C. by the complainant to the OP. We further direct the OP to pay Rs.5500/- to the complainant on account of mental agony and harassment suffered by him and for the litigation expenses.  This order shall be complied within 30 days from the receipt of copy of this order failing which the abovesaid amount will carry interest @ 8% per annum from the date of order till its realization. The parties concerned be communicated of the order accordingly and the file be consigned to the record room after due compliance.

Announced

Dated:10.01.2018

                                                                  

                                                                  President,

                                                         District Consumer Disputes

                                                        Redressal Forum, Karnal.

 

 

                        (Veena Rani)       (Anil Sharma)

                          Member                Member