Date of Argument – 24-05-2018
Date of Judgment – 21-05-2022
The case of the complainant in brief is that on 27.07.2006, the complainant purchased one LIC’s MARKET PLUS POLICY, bearing policy No.442687248 with a fixed premium of Rs.20,000.00 per year under table No.181/10 with a life cover sum assured of Rs.1,00,000/- and accident benefit sum assured of Rs.1,00,000/-. After purchasing the said policy the complainant had paid the premium against the aforesaid policy regularly on 27.06.2006, 05.09.2007, 11.07.2008 and 24.08.2009 respectively till the date of surrender of the aforesaid policy before the O.P. No.3.
That as per the terms and condition of the policy, the policy holder can surrender the policy to the O.Ps. at any time after the payment of premium for three policy years and the O.P. is bound to accept the surrender of the policy for payment to the policy holder and accordingly after the payment of four consecutive payment as premium against the aforesaid policy, the complainant surrendered her policy to the O.P. No.3 for payment of assured amount together with other benefit(s) etc. accumulated in the aforesaid policy. On 04.10.2012, the complainant surrendered her policy before the O.P. No.3, the Branch Manager, Life Insurance Corporation of India, Tinsukia Branch for payment of the sum assured with all other benefit(s) accumulated against the aforesaid policy as during the time, the complainant faced acute financial need for taking admission of her daughter in Medical College. That after surrender of the said policy, the O.P. No.3 informed the complainant that the term and plan of the policy has been changed and she is not entitled to any payment against the aforesaid policy at that time. The complainant alleges that she never applied for changing the aforesaid policy to any other plan of the O.P. and the O.P. has changed the term and plan of her policy at their own discretion without obtaining any consent from the complainant and without giving any information or intimation about the changing of the term and plan of the policy which is totally unjustified and illegal.
That whenever the complainant was refused to make the payment against the aforesaid policy, she immediately lodged a written complaint before the O.P. No.3 on 04.10.2012 for master correction and payment of the surrender value and after receiving the said complaint, no action has ever been taken by the O.Ps. and being aggrieved, the complainant has visited several occasions the office of the O.P. No.3 and requested them to release the surrender value of the aforesaid policy but no initiative has ever been taken by the O.P. to release the surrender value of the said policy. That as the said O.P. did not show any initiative to release the surrender amount till the month of May, 2015, on 11.06.2015 the complainant sent an e-mail to the Customer Relation Manager of LICI through the mail ID of her advocate Mr. N.K. Jain showing her grievances for non-payment of the surrender value of the aforementioned policy.
That after receiving the said e-mail, the O.P. No.3 sent an e-mail stating inter-alia that the O.P. No.3 was advised by the CRM to correct the policy master after BMC approval and they prepared a BMC note on 30.11.2012 and tried to rectify the master but all their efforts went in vain. In spite of receiving of the instant e-mail from CRM, Jorhat, the O.Ps. deliberately neglected to release the surrender value of the aforesaid policy. That when all the efforts of the complainant went in vain, being compelled she served a legal notice through her advocate on 17.11.2015 which was duly received by the O.P. No.3. But no initiative whatsoever has been taken by the O.P. for releasing the amount. The O.Ps. have deliberately failed and equate to pay the surrender value against the aforementioned policy as per table No.181/10 of LICI and thereby the O.Ps. committed the offence of deficiency in service. The complainant claims that there is a deficiency of service on the part of the O.P. as the said O.Ps. after receiving the premium against LIC’s MARKET PLUS POLICY from the complainant has moral and legal obligations and there legal duty to pay the assured amount of the complainant and due to non-payment of the surrendered value as per table No.181/10 of LICI under the aforementioned policy, the complainant has been suffering from a great financial loss and damage along with mental agony. The cause of action for this complaint arose on 15.07.2006 and on subsequent dates thereafter.
The complainant prays to direct the O.Ps. to
- Pay the surrender value of the policy No.442687248 together with bonus and all other benefit(s) along with interest @ 18% per annum accumulated in the said policy since the date of surrender, i.e. 04.10.2012 and
- Pay a sum of Rs.3,00,000/- towards physical strain and mental agony and
- Pay a sum of Rs.15,000/- only towards the cost of the proceeding and
- Pay any other relief or relief(s) to the complainant as entitled to law and equity.
After registering the case, notices were issued to all the O.Ps. who contested the case and submitted their W/S stating inter-alia that the case is not maintainable under law as well as on facts and no cause of action arose for the case till now. The O.P. has submitted that the complainant took the relevant policy from the O.P. and the O.P. also admitted the receipt of 3(three) renewal premium for Rs.20,000/- each on dtd. 05.09.2007, 11.07.2008 and 24.08.2009 and the renewal premium receipts given to the complainant has mentioned the product type as table 14 with policy term and premium payment period 10 years. The product type and policy had been changed to Non-linked (Non-linked to Market fluctuations) endowment policy with profit from linked (linked to market fluctuations through reflection of Non-Asset value) Market Plus policy. Such change was neither allowed nor possible as per the system and procedure followed in the organization.
They submitted that the complainant could have examined the renewal premium receipts and could have intimated the Insurer immediately about the changes of the policy.
The O.P. admitted that the corrections to the above referred change is a very complicated process and the Insurer has taken it as very seriously at higher level, involving its corporate office software development centre. Regular follow up is on and different methods are being tried to correct the policy master. The O.P. also submitted that as the efforts are being made for making necessary corrections and as the case is of very exceptional nature, it is tugged that the complainant may for some more time bear with them. Suitable interest for the delayed payment as per rules of the Insurer may be considered at the time of making payment, once correction process is finalized. The O.P. denies their deficiency in service towards the consumer that the incident of change of policy table of the policy in matter was not occurred due to insufficient response from O.P. or any lacuna or deficiency in services on their part, rather unfortunate happening caused due to technical reason of the software. The O.P. prayed to dismiss the complaint of the complainant in lamine with cost of Rs.10,000/- to the O.P. as provided under Section 26 of Consumer Protection Act, 1986. In this case the complainant gave her evidence by swearing affidavit and exhibited as many as 10 documents, marked as exhibit 1 to exhibit 9(A). On the other hand, in this case, O.Ps failed to adduce any evidence as their evidence was closed by the Forum/Commission vide order dtd. 11.01.2018.
Decisions and Reasons thereof.
Upon going through the evidence of the complainant, it is found that on 27.07.2006 the complainant purchased one LIC’s Market Plus policy bearing No.442687248 with a fixed premium of Rs.20,000/- only per year under table 181/10 with life cover sum assured of Rs.1,00,000/- and accident benefit sum assured Rs.1,00,000/-. (Ext. 1 is the policy bearing No.442687248).
After purchasing the policy she had paid three renewal premium for the policy on 05.09.2007, 11.07.2008 and 24.08.2009 respectively till the date of surrender of the policy for payment before the O.P. (Ext. 2, 3, 4 and 5 are the premium payment receipts).
As per terms and condition of that policy, the policy holder can surrender the policy to the O.P. at any time after the payment of premium of three policy year and the O.P. is bound to accept the surrender of the policy for payment to the proposer of the policy and accordingly after payment of four consecutive payments of premium, the complainant surrendered the policy to the O.P. No.3 for payment of the assured amount together with all other benefits etc. accumulated in the aforesaid policy and after surrender of the policy the O.P. No.3, the Branch Manager of LICI of Tinsukia Branch informed the complainant that the term and plan of the policy has been changed and she is not entitled to any payment against the aforesaid policy at that time.
The complainant submitted that she never applied for changing the policy to any other plan of the corporation and the O.P. had changed the term and plan of the aforesaid policy at their own discretion and without obtaining any consent from the complainant and without giving any information about the changing of the term and plan of the policy which is totally unjustified and illegal. On refusal of the O.P. No.3 to make payment against the aforesaid policy on 04.10.2012, the complainant lodged a written complaint before the O.P. No.3 for master correction and payment of surrender value. (Ext. 6 is the prayer for master correction). As no action had ever been taken by the O.P. and being aggrieved of, the complainant visited the office of the O.P.No.3 several times and requested them to release the surrender value of the policy, but no initiative had ever been taken by the O.P. Having no alternative, being compelled the complainant filed this complaint seeking remedy against the deficiency of service on the part of the O.P.
The complainant has also submitted the following exhibits along with her evidence in affidavit –
Ext. 7 – copy of email dtd. 18.06.2015.
Ext. 8 – copy of email dtd. 20.06.2015.
Ext. 9- copy of the legal notice dtd. 17.11.2015.
Ext. 9(A) – is the postal receipt.
Both the parties have submitted their written arguments at length which were carefully perused and examined.
Points for Decision
- Whether the complaint is a consumer under the provision of Consumer Protection Act.
- Whether the complainant is legally entitled to get the reliefs claimed by herself in her complaint.
- Whether O.Ps are liable for deficient service towards their consumer.
Points Decided
From the complaint petition and from the documents and exhibits filed along with the complaint, it is well evident that the complainant is a consumer under the provisions of Consumer Protection Act, 1986 and this fact is not denied rather admitted by the O.Ps in their W/S.
Perusing the documents filed along with the complaint as Annexure/ Exhibits, this Commission unanimously resolves that the complainant is legally entitled to get the reliefs as claimed in her complaint petition. At the same time this Commission finds negligency in serving the consumer/customer by the O.P. The complainant prove negligency of the O.P. through her evidence and exhibits and changing of policy term and plan was made without the knowledge of the complainant. Moreover, it is not expected that every person after paying the premiums should go through the receipts thoroughly and the O.P. in their written argument admitted the changing of the policy as abnormal.
During preparation of this judgement and in some other judgements also we have seriously noticed that the organization like Life Insurance Corporation of India which created a trustworthy image in the eye of the masses has gradually failed to keep the hope and aspirations of its valued customers in solving their claims and problems which may create a sign of doubt in its ‘good will’ during this ongoing era of competitions. This commission expects that the corporation like L.I.C.I. be vigilant and be prompt in solving the consumer complaints to minimize the litigation in Consumer Commission or in any other bodies/courts.
From all the above discussions, this Commission comes to a conclusion that the complainant is entitled to get the surrender value of the policy No.442687248 together with bonus and all other benefits along with interest accumulated in the said policy from the date of surrender.
This Commission directs the Opposite Parties, the Life Insurance Corporation of India to pay to the complainant -
- The surrender value of the policy No.442687248 together with bonus and all other benefits along with interest @ 7% per annum accumulated in the said policy from the date of surrender , i.e. 04-10-2012 till the date of payment;
- A sum of Rs.90,000/- (Rupees ninety thousand) only towards physical and mental agony and
- A sum of Rs.10,000/-(Rupees ten thousand)only towards the cost of litigation.
All the above mentioned amounts be deposited into the credit of this Commission by the O.P. within 30 days from the receipt of this judgement and order, failing which the O.P. will be liable to pay an extra interest @ 10% per annum.
Send copy of this judgement to the O.P. for compliance.
The instant C.C. No.20/16 is accordingly disposed of on contest.
