Punjab

Faridkot

CC/17/74

JYOTI NARANG - Complainant(s)

Versus

MANAGER Tata AIG LIFE Insurance Company Limited - Opp.Party(s)

Ashu Mittal

28 Aug 2017

ORDER

 DISTRICT CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL FORUM, FARIDKOT

 

Complaint No. :      74

Date of Institution:  14.03.2017

Date of Decision :   28.08.2017

 

Jyoti Narang w/o Rupesh Narang s/o Mukand Lal r/o Street No. 2, Old Cantt Road, Faridkot, Tehsil and District Faridkot.

...Complainant

Versus

1. Tata AIG General Insurance Company Ltd, Mall Road, Bathinda through its Manager.
2. Tata AIG General Insurance Company Ltd, Ahura Centre, 4^th Floor, 82 Mahakali Caves Road, Andheri (E) Mumbai through its MD 400093.

.....OPs

Complaint under Section 12 of the

Consumer Protection Act, 1986.

 

Quorum: Sh. Ajit Aggarwal, President,

               Sh P Singla, Member.

 

Present: Sh Ashu Mittal, Ld Counsel for complainant,

              Sh Armaan Deep Singh Virdi, Ld Counsel for OPs,

              

 

ORDER

 (Ajit Aggarwal, President)

                                                Complainant has filed the present complaint under Section 12 of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 against OPs seeking directions to OPs to refund the amount deposited with Ops alongwith interest and for further directing OPs to pay Rs. 50,000/- as compensation for harassment, inconvenience, mental agony besides litigation expenses.

2                                           Briefly stated, the case of the complainant is that Ops opened their branch office at Faridkot in 2003 and  persuaded complainant to purchase their insurance policy from them and disclosed that complainant had to pay Rs.1239/- after every six months for atleast three years and after three years, complainant would be entitled to take the amount deposited alongwith interest at any time and maturity date of insurance policy is 16.10.2023. Complainant purchased the insurance policy and they issued Insurance Policy bearing No.C110337757. It is submitted that complainant was regularly paying her premiums but in 2006, OPs closed their office at Faridkot and agent of OPs used to collect the premium from complainant and after some time, OPs used to sent an intimation letter for getting deposited the premium and then, complainant started depositing premiums in the account of OPs and complainant paid the last premium to OPs on 12.05.2015 and thereafter, OPs neither sent any intimation letter nor gave any response to efforts made by complainant to know the status of her insurance policy through helpline of OPs. Therefore, complainant is not interested to continue the present policy and is entitled to get refund of amount deposited by her with Opposite Parties alongwith interest. The action of Opposite Parties in not refunding the amount deposited by complainant amounts to deficiency in service and trade mal practice on their part. Complainant has prayed for directing Ops to refund the amount deposited with Ops

alongwith interest and for further directing them to pay Rs. 50,000/- as compensation for harassment, inconvenience, mental agony besides litigation expenses. Hence, the present complaint.

3                                                  The counsel for complainant was heard with regard to admission of the complaint and vide order dated 20.03.2017, complaint was admitted and notice was ordered to be issued to the opposite party.

4                                             OPs filed written statement taking preliminary objections that present complaint is time barred as policy in question was issued to complainant on 30.10.2003 but present complaint is filed on 14.03.2017 and therefore, complaint is hopelessly time barred and is liable to be dismissed as it is filed beyond the period of limitation. It is averred that complainant has tried to misguide and mislead the Hon’ble Forum and no cause of action arises against answering Ops. Present complaint is filed on the basis of false and frivolous allegations and it is an abuse of process of law and is not maintainable in present form. Complainant has not come to this Forum with clean hands and has concealed the material facts. Moreover, policy in question was purchased by complainant through Rupesh Narang, who is husband of complainant and was financial advisor of OPs at that time. However, on merits, Ops have denied all the allegations levelled by complainant being wrong and incorrect and asserted that OPs never opened their office at Faridkot and till now, they do not have any branch in this district. It is totally denied that they ever persuaded the complainant to purchase the policy in question, rather complainant herself purchased the policy at the instance of her husband Rupesh Kumar who was financial advisor of Ops at that time. However, it is admitted by them that complainant purchased the policy in question and it is also admitted that date of maturing of present policy is 16.10.2023 and complainant had to pay the premium of Rs.1239/-after every six months. It is averred that from the very beginning, complainant was irregular in the payment of premiums and consequently, the policy of complainant lapsed due to non payment of subsequent premiums. Despite issuance of repeated letters and reminders, complainant did not pay the premiums in time. It is further averred that complainant was herself depositing the premiums in Axis  Bank Branch. She herself produced receipt of Axis Bank dt 12.05.2015 by which she deposited premium in bank. Complainant knew very well where to deposit the renewal premium and now, she had made false excuses to get refund of premiums. It is further averred that complainant has levelled false allegations, her policy stands lapsed and now, she is not entitled to get refund of premiums paid till date. It is further averred that complainant is entitled only to obtain surrender value as per terms and conditions of the policy and not the refund for amount deposited. It is reiterated that there is no deficiency in service on the part of OPs and prayed for dismissal of complaint with costs.

5                                               Parties were given proper opportunities to prove their respective case. The complainant tendered in evidence his affidavit Ex.C-1 and documents Ex C-2 to C-3 and then, closed his evidence.

6                                                In order to rebut the evidence of the complainant, ld counsel for OPs tendered in evidence, affidavit of Harsimran Singh as Ex OP-1 and documents Ex OP-2 to OP-7 and then, closed the same on behalf of Ops.

7                                              We have heard the ld counsel for complainant as well as OPs and have carefully gone through the evidence and documents placed on record by respective parties.

  8                                                       Ld Counsel for complainant argued that Ops opened their branch office at Faridkot in 2003 and        persuaded complainant to purchase their insurance policy from them and disclosed that complainant had to pay Rs.1239/- after every six months for atleast three years and after three years, complainant would be entitled to take the amount deposited alongwith interest at any time and maturity date of insurance policy is 16.10.2023. It is submitted that complainant was regularly paying her premiums but in 2006, OPs closed their office and agent of OPs started collecting premium from complainant and after some time, OPs used to sent an intimation letter for getting deposited the premium and then, complainant started depositing premiums in the account of OPs. Complainant paid the last premium on 12.05.2015 and thereafter, OPs neither sent any intimation letter nor gave any response to efforts made by complainant to know the status of her insurance policy through helpline of Opposite Parties. Due to this, complainant is not interested to continue the present policy and is entitled to get refund of amount deposited by her with Ops alongwith interest.  The action of Opposite Parties in not refunding the amount of

complainant amounts to deficiency in service. She has prayed for accepting the present complaint alongwith compensation for and litigation expenses and stressed on documents Ex C-1 to 3.

9                                            To controvert the allegations of complainant, ld counsel for OPs argued before the Forum that there is no deficiency in service on the part of OPs.  It is asserted that present complaint is time barred as policy in question was issued to complainant on 30.10.2003 but present complaint is filed on 14.03.2017 and therefore, complaint in is hopelessly time barred and is liable to be dismissed as it is filed beyond the period of limitation. It is averred that complainant has tried to misguide and mislead the Hon’ble Forum and no cause of action arises against Ops. It is filed on the basis of false allegations and is an abuse of process of law and is not maintainable in present form. Complainant has not come to this Forum with clean hands and has concealed the material facts. Moreover, policy in question was purchased by complainant through Rupesh Narang, who is husband of complainant and was financial advisor of OPs at that time. Ops have denied all the allegations being wrong and incorrect and asserted that OPs never opened their office at Faridkot and till now, they do not have any branch in this district. It is totally denied that they ever persuaded the complainant to purchase the policy in question, rather complainant herself purchased the same at the instance of her husband Rupesh Kumar who was financial advisor of Ops at that time. It is admitted by them that complainant purchased the policy in question and it is also admitted that date of maturing of present policy is 16.10.2023 and complainant had to pay the premium of Rs.1239/-after every six months. It is averred that from the very beginning, complainant was irregular in the payment of premiums and consequently, the policy of complainant lapsed due to non payment of subsequent premiums. Despite issuance of repeated letters and reminders, complainant did not pay the premiums in time. It is further averred that complainant was herself depositing the premiums in Axis  Bank Branch. She herself produced receipt of Axis Bank dt 12.05.2015 by which she deposited premium in bank. Complainant knew very well where to deposit the renewal premium and now, she had made false excuses to get refund of premiums. It is further averred that complainant has levelled false allegations, her policy stands lapsed and now, she is not entitled to get refund of premiums paid till date. It is further averred that complainant is entitled only to obtain surrender value as per terms and conditions of the policy and not the refund for amount deposited. It is reiterated that there is no deficiency in service on the part of OPs and prayed for dismissal of complaint with costs.

10                                     From the careful perusal of record and documents placed by parties, it is observed that case of the complainant is that OPs opened branch office at Faridkot and in persuasion of assurances given by OPs, complainant purchased an insurance policy from OPs and started paying premiums. But after some time, they closed their office from Faridkot and then, agent of OPs stated collecting premium from complainant, but after some time, OPs did not give any report about status of her policy and nor gave any response about the letter and reminders issued by complainant to know about her policy. Complainant does not want to continue with OPs and wants to get refund of amount deposited with OPs, but action of OPs in not refund her amount amounts to deficiency in service. She has prayed for directing OPs to refund her amount with interest. In reply, OPs stressed mainly on the point that complaint is time barred as complainant has filed the complaint beyond the period of limitation. Moreover, OPs alleged that complainant was irregular in making payment of premiums and despite repeated letters and reminders when complainant did not pay the premiums in time, then her policy was lapsed due to non payment of premium amount. There is no deficiency in service on the part of OPs and have prayed for dismissal of complaint with costs.

11                                     To prove her case, complainant has relied upon document ExC-2 that is policy data showing clearly the facts that complainant has stated in her pleadings about the terms of policy till 2023 and about of amount of premium i.e Rs.1239 which complainant was depositing with OPs after every six months. Ex C-3 is the copy of receipt dated 12.05.2015, that clearly proves the fact that complainant paid half yearly premium amount to OPs and through her affidavit Ex C-1 complainant has reiterated her pleadings.

12                                                      From the careful perusal of Ex C-3 i.e copy of receipt dt 12.05.2015 produced by complainant, it is made out that complainant kept depositing the premiums and continued the insurance policy till 2015 i.e for a long period of continuous 12 years. Moreover, there is no denial on the part of OPs that complainant purchase the policy in question and was paying premiums. Plea taken by OPs that complainant is not entitled for refund of any amount               out of premiums paid by her towards the policy in question as she did not pay the entire premiums on time and due to default in making payment of premium on her part, her policy lapsed and she cannot claim any benefits under the policy in question, does not seem appropriate as complainant continued the policy in question for long period of more than 12 years and not for only short span of small duration. In the light of receipt Ex C-3, it is also clear that complaint in hand is not time barred and it is well within the period of limitation. Therefore, this Forum is of considered opinion that if complainant is not entitled for the refund of entire premium amount paid by her towards the policy in question, then she is entitled for surrender value of the policy in question as per instructions and guidelines issued by IRDA and non refund of surrender value of policy in question by OPs amounts to deficiency in service and trade mal practice on the part of OPs. Hence, present complaint is hereby allowed. OPs are directed to make refund of surrender value to complainant as on 14.03.2017 i.e the date of filing the present complaint.  Complainant is also directed to surrender her original policy and policy documents to OPs alongwith request for surrender of policy within 15 days of receipt of the copy of this order and OPs are directed to make payment of surrender value of policy within 30  days of receipt of policy documents from complainant. OPs are further directed to pay Rs.2000/-to complainant as compensation for harassment and mental agony suffered by him including litigation expenses. In case      of  failure  to  make  payment  of  surrender  value by  Opposite  parties

within prescribed period, complainant shall be entitled for interest at the rate of 9% per anum on surrender value from the date of decision till final realization. Compliance of this order be made within prescribed period failing which, complainant shall be entitled to proceed under Section 25 and 27 of the Consumer Protection Act. Copy of order be given to parties free of cost under rules. File be consigned to record room.

Announced in Open Forum

Dated : 28.08.2017       

 

                   Member                             President

                                     (P Singla)                       (Ajit Aggarwal)