BEFORE THE DISTRICT CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL FORUM, LUDHIANA.
Complaint No: 567 of 19.08.2014
Date of Decision: 27.02.2015
Raj Forex Services Private Limited, Regd. Office 3073, Malhar Road, Gurdev Nagar, Ludhiana, through its Director Sh.Inderprit Singh,
……Complainant
Versus
1. The National Insurance Company Ltd., Regd. Office: 3, Midleton Street, Kolkata-700 071, through its Chairman-Cum-Managing Director.
2. The National Insurance Company Ltd., S.C.O. 332-334, Sector 34-A, Chandigarh-160 022, through its Chief Regional Manager.
3. The National Insurance Company Ltd., Kesar Ganj Chowk, Ludhiana, 141 001, through its Branch/Divisional Manager.
…..Opposite parties
COMPLAINT UNDER SECTION 12 OF THE
CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT, 1986.
Quorum: Sh.R.L.Ahuja, President
Sh.Sat Paul Garg, Member
Smt.Babita, Member
Present: Sh.Chandra Kumar Jha, Advocate for complainant.
Sh.D.R.Rampal, Advocate for OPs.
ORDER
(SAT PAUL GARG, MEMBER)
1. Present complaint under Section 12 of The Consumer Protection Act, 1986 (herein-after in short to be referred as ‘Act’) has been filed by Raj Forex Services Private Limited, Regd. Office 3073, Malhar Road, Gurdev Nagar, Ludhiana, through its Director Sh.Inderprit Singh (herein-after in short to be referred as ‘complainant’) against The National Insurance Company Ltd., Regd. Office: 3, Midleton Street, Kolkata-700 071, through its Chairman-Cum-Managing Director and others (herein-after in short to be referred as ‘OPs’)- directing them to make payment of the claim amount of Rs.9,51,300/-( US $ 18000) alongwith interest @ 18% p.a. from the date of accident and to pay Rs.1.00 lac as compensation/damages to the complainant alongwith any other additional or alternative relief.
2. Brief facts of the complaint are that OP3 under instructions of OP1 and OP2 had approached the complainant and represented that OPs are engaged in the business of insurance. The complainant got themselves insured from OPs. The said dealing with the complainant and with the OPs since the last 10-12 years. The details of policy which has been issued by the OPs is given as under:-
Sr. No. Policy No. Validity Period
1. 404502/48/09/7600000239 15.6.09 to 14.06.10
2. 404502/48/10/7600000201 15.06.10 to 14.6.11
3. 404502/48/11/7600000118 15.06.11 to 14.06.12
4. 404502/48/12/7600000105 22.05.12 to 21.05.13
The complainant had obtained the above said policy on the payment of premium and as such the contract of insurance is complete in all respects. However, OPs ne ver supplied the terms and conditions of the insurance policy so far. The complainant obtained the insurance policy in dispute vide no.404500/48/11/7600000118 valid w.e.f 15.6.11 to 14.6.12 and had paid the premium of Rs.8802/-. The premium was duly accepted by the OPs. The complainant is a private company registered with the Registrar of Companies, Punjab, H.P. and Chandigarh, vide Registration no.16-22122 of 1999 and is earning his livelihood by carrying on the business of fully fledged money changer. On 24.4.12 at about 12.30 pm met with an incident, which was informed to one of complainant employee Deepak Sharma on mobile phone that he met with an incident for which complainant lodged the complaint with the Police and FIR no.32 dated 24.4.12 u/s 419/420 was registered with P.S. Division no.3 Ludhiana. Due to such incident complainant’s insured money were fraudulently snatched from complainant employee to the tune of US $ 18000, which was mentioned in the FIR. The Indian value of the said dollar on the date of accident was Rs.9,51,300/-. The complainant lodged the claim with the OP3 under the above said policy and submitted copy of FIR and copy of policy schedule to the OPs. After that the complainant received a letter dated 12.09.12 from OP3 with the reason that the complainant intimated OPs about the loss on 5.9.12 i.e. after 128 days from the date of loss i.e. 24.4.12. Hence OPs have deprived OPs right to investigate this stage, after 4 months and 5 days from the date of loss thorough investigation of the claims is not possible. As such complainant claim cannot be entertained. Thereafter the complainant visited numbers of times and requested to lodge the claim of the complainant which has flatly been refused by the OPs. Complainant also sent legal notice dated 1.5.13 through his counsel to the OPs. The OPs received the said notice and sent frivolous reply dated 21.5.13 taking false pleas. Claiming the above act as deficiency in service on the part of the OPs, the complainant has filed this complaint.
3. On notice of the complaint, OPs appeared through their counsel and filed written statement taking preliminary objections that complaint is not maintainable in the present form; the complaint is false and frivolous one and is liable to be dismissed; the complaint is bad for non joinder and mis joinder of necessary parties; the complainant has not come to this Forum with clean hands and complainant has suppressed the material facts; the complaint is also barred by time; intricate question of law and facts are involved in this case, which cannot be summarily decided by this Forum, as the same required elaborate evidence. On merits, submitting the contents of the some of the paras being matter of record and denying the contents of some of the paras, submitted that it was the duty of the complainant to give immediate intimation/notice to the OPs with regard to alleged incident. It gave intimation with regard to alleged loss on 5.9.12. There is violation of terms and conditions of the insurance policy on the part of complainant. The complainant was supposed to follow the claim procedure and it was bound to intimate with regard to alleged loss immediately. But he gave intimation after 128 days from the date of alleged loss. The alleged claim of the complainant is not entertain able one and was rightly declined by the OPs, after minutely considering the alleged intimation of the complainant and copies of documents supplied to the OPs and not claim/declined letter dated 12.09.12 was duly posted to the complainant. There is no deficiency on the part of the OPs and complaint is liable to be dismissed.
4. Ld. counsel for complainant has adduced the evidence by way of duly sworn affidavit of Sh.Inderpreet Singh, Director Raj Forex Services Private Limited Ex.CW1/1, wherein, the same facts have been reiterated as narrated in the complaint and also attached documents Ex.CW1/2 to Ex.CW1/26. On the other hand, Ld. counsel for OPs has adduced the evidence by way of duly sworn affidavit of Sh.Kamaljit Singh, Deputy Manager, National Insurance Co. Ltd., DO-IV, Kesar Ganj Chowk, Ludhiana Ex.RA, wherein, the same facts have been reiterated as narrated in the written statement and also attached documents Ex.R1 to Ex.R6.
5. Case was fixed for arguments. Ld. counsel for complainant argued that incident occurred on 24.4.12 at about 12.30 pm. Complainant lodged FIR no.32 dated 24.4.12 u/s 419/420 with the P.S. Division no.3, Ludhiana. In the said incident the complainant’s insured money was fraudulently snatched from the employee of the complainant, which was to the tune of US $ 18000, which is duly mentioned in the FIR and the Indian value of the said dollar on the date of accident was Rs.9,51,300/-. The claim was lodged with OP3. Copy of FIR and copy of policy schedule was also supplied to OP3. After that complainant received a letter dated 12.9.12 from the OP3, vide which the claim of the complainant was denied for the reason that there was delay of 128 days from the date of loss. Ld. counsel for complainant also relied upon the judgement passed in case titled as The Oriental Insurance Co. Ltd. Vs Parvesh Chandra Chadha-2009 (1) CLT 552 passed by Hon’ble National Commission, New Delhi, vide which it was held that “Complaint filed against Insurance Company for repudiation of insurance claim as the incident of theft of car was not intimated in time – District Forum whereby petitioner-OP Insurance Co. was directed to settle the claim of the respondent-complainant on non-standard basis at 75% of the amount of loss of Rs.1,85,000/- alongwith interest @ 12% p.a.- State Commission confirmed such order on appeal- Held that District Forum had rightly allowed the claim to be settled on non-standard basis at 75% as per the own Guidelines of the Insurance Co. with interest and the State Commission has also rightly dismissed the appeal against forum’s order- No illegally or jurisdictional error in the orders passed by For a below- Revisional application dismissed.”
6. Refuting the allegations leveled by the complainant, Ld. counsel for OPs argued that it was incumbent on the part of the complainant to intimate the alleged loss in time from the day of incident and there was delay of 128 days in intimating to the OPs about the loss. Further argued that intricate question of law and facts are involved in this case, which cannot be summarily decided by this Forum, as the same required elaborate evidence.
7. We have gone through the pleading of the complainant as well as defence taken by the OPs and have gone through the judgement relied upon by the complainant and have also perused the entire record placed on file.
8. It is evident that complainant obtained the insurance policy, vide no.404500/4811/7600000118 valid w.e.f. 15.6.11 to 14.6.12. On 24.2.12 at about 12.30 pm an incident was occurred, which was informed one of complainant employee Deepak Sharma on mobile phone and complainant also lodged the complaint with the police and lodged the FIR no.32 dated 24.4.12 u/s 419/420 with P.S. Division no.3, Ludhiana. Moreover it is the case of snatching and FIR was also registered u/s 419/420.
9. Sequel to the above discussion, we are of the considered opinion that this Forum has no jurisdiction to try this complaint, as it needs elaborate evidence, whether the money was actually handed over by the employee or it was snatched and the employee of the complainant was actually carrying US $ 18000. As such, the present complaint is hereby disposed off and we direct the complainant to relegate the present case to Civil Court. Copy of the order be supplied to the parties, free of costs. File be consigned to record room.
(Babita) (S.P.Garg) (R.L.Ahuja)
Member Member President
Announced in Open Forum.
Dated:27.02.2015
Hardeep Singh
