Punjab

Faridkot

CC/15/156

Jatinder Singh Chhina - Complainant(s)

Versus

National Insurance Co. - Opp.Party(s)

Lakhwinder Singh

11 May 2016

ORDER

 DISTRICT CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL FORUM, FARIDKOT

 

Complaint No. :      156

Date of Institution:  5.11.2015

Date of Decision :   11.05.2016

 

Jatinder Singh Chhina, aged about 50 years, s/o D S Chhina, r/o 140 Shaheed Udham Singh Nagar, Opp ESI Hospital, Jallandhar City, now posted as Executive Engineer, Electrical Division, Punjab PWD, B & R, Faridkot at Faridkot.

...Complainant

Versus

1. National Insurance Company Ltd. Regd & Head Office 3-Middleton Street, Kolkata-700071, through its authorised signatory/Chairman/ General Manager/Managing Director.

2. National Insurance Company Ltd., Divisional Office, Above Vijaya Bank, G T Road, Moga-142001, through its Divisional Manager.

3. National Insurance Company Ltd., Branch Office, Batala Road, Amritsar, through its Branch Manager.

4. National Insurance Company Ltd., Branch Office, Kotkapura, Tehsil Kotkapura, District Faridkot, through its Branch Manager.

 .....Opposite Parties

Complaint under Section 12 of the

Consumer Protection Act, 1986.

 

 

Quorum: Sh. Ajit Aggarwal, President,

               Smt Parampal Kaur, Member,

               Sh P Singla, Member.

 

Present: Sh  Lakhwinder Singh, Ld Counsel for complainant,

              Sh S K Jain, Ld Counsel for Ops.

.

 

(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 make payment of Rs.10 lac on account of insurance of vehicle and for further directing OPs to pay Rs 50,000/- as compensation for harassment, inconvenience, mental agony besides litigation expenses of Rs10,000/-.

2                               Briefly stated, the case of the complainant is that complainant got insured his car make Verna bearing registration no. PB-08BZ /5802 for Rs 11,00,000/- vide policy no 404402 /31 /14 / 6100001198 dt 4.08.2014 from OP-1 and 2 through OP-3. The car in question was fully insured with Ops. On 15.04.2015, when complainant was going from Ludhiana to Jallandhar and when he reached near Lovely Professional  University, all of a sudden due to some flash of light from opposite side, his car badly struck with divider on the road and in that accident 100% damage was caused to his car. Even Surveyor appointed by Ops also submitted in his Survey Report that loss caused to vehicle in question in accident dt 15.04.2015 is 100%. Complainant himself was driving the car in question very carefully at the time of that accident and he was having effective and valid driving license at that time. Complainant also suffered injuries on his right arm, left eye and left knee in that accident. Complainant completed all the formalities and submitted requisite documents to Ops and also made many requests to them to make payment of his genuine claim. Despite repeated requests by complainant, they have not even paid single penny to complainant for damages occurred to his car. Complainant  visited the office of OPs  many times and made several requests to them to make payment of his insurance claim, but all in vain. Complainant also issued legal notice to this effect, which also bore no fruit. All this amounts to deficiency in service and trade mal practice on the part of Ops and it has caused harassment and mental agony to complainant for which he has prayed for directions to OP to pay Rs.50,000/-as compensation alongwith cost of litigation besides the insurance claim for said vehicle. Hence, the present complaint.

3                                       The counsel for complainant was heard with regard to admission of the complaint and vide order dated 6.11.2015, complaint was admitted and notice was ordered to be issued to the opposite parties.

4                                     On receipt of the notice, OPs filed written statement taking preliminary objections that at the time of said accident on 16.04.2015, complainant was not having valid and effective driving license. Learning Driving licence given by complainant was valid from 14.01.2005 to 13.07.2005 and thereafter regular license bearing no. 3308 was issued to complainant on 26.05.2005, which was valid till 25.05.2010 and this is clear from report of District Transport Officer, Jallandhar dt 10.07.2015. Complainant gave a license having renewal no. PB - 0820050164554 dated 6.07.2015 to answering Ops, which is valid with effect from 6.07.2015. ld counsel for Ops submitted in reply that application of complainant was duly replied by them vide letter dt 4.09.2015, vide which complainant was informed that his claim has been closed as no claim due to the reason that he was not holding effective driving license at the time of accident. It is also brought before the Forum by Ops that Surveyor of Ops assessed the loss occurred to the car of complainant to the tune of    Rs3,43,000/-in all on net off salvage loss basis without RC dt 31.08.2015 and till date complainant has not objected to Survey Report that loss assessed by Surveyor is on lesser side, rather Surveyor assessed loss on the basis of terms and conditions of the Policy and therefore, complainant is not entitled for any claim as sought by him. However, on merits, Ops have refuted all the allegations levelled by complainant being wrong and incorrect and stressed mainly on the point that complainant was not holding effective driving license at the time of said accident. All the other allegations levelled by complainant are denied being wrong and incorrect and it is reiterated that there is no deficiency in service or unfair trade practice on the part of OPs. The allegations with regard to relief sought too were refuted with a prayer that complaint deserves to be dismissed 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-14 and then, closed his evidence.

6                                In order to rebut the evidence of the complainant, the opposite party tendered in evidence, affidavit of Kamaljeet Singh, Div. Manager as Ex OP-1 and documents Ex OP-2 to 12 and then, closed the same on the part of Ops.

7                              Ld Counsel for complainant has vehementally argued that complainant got fully insured his car make Verna bearing registration no. PB-08BZ /5802 for sum of Rs 11,00,000/- from OP-1 and 2 through OP-3. Ld counsel for complainant submitted before the Forum that on 15.04.2015, when complainant was going from Ludhiana to Jallandhar on reaching near Lovely Professional  University, all of a sudden due to some flash of light from opposite side, his car struck with divider on the road and in that accident there occurred 100% damage to his car. It is contended that Surveyor appointed by Ops also submitted in his Survey Report that loss caused to vehicle in question in accident dt 15.04.2015 is 100%. Complainant was driving his car carefully at the time of that accident and he was having effective and valid driving license at that time. Complainant also suffered several injuries on his body. It is stated that all this happened due to sudden flash of light in the eyes of complainant and he also suffered several injuries. After completion of all formalities, complainant submitted the requisite documents to Ops and also made many requests to them to make payment of his genuine claim. Despite repeated requests by Ops, they did not pay even single penny for damages occurred to his car. Complainant visited the office of OPs many times with request to make payment of his insurance claim, but all in vain. Even issuance of legal notice bore no fruit. By their act and conduct, Ops have caused harassment and mental agony to complainant for which he has prayed for accepting the present complaint.

  8                    To controvert the allegations of complainant, ld counsel for Ops asserted before the Forum that complaint filed by complainant is false and wrong and there is no deficiency in service on the part of Ops. It is further asserted that at the time of said accident on 16.04.2015, complainant was not having valid and effective driving license and Learning Driving licence given by complainant was valid from 14.01.2005 to 13.07.2005 and thereafter regular license bearing no. 3308 issued to complainant on 26.05.2005 was valid till 25.05.2010 and this fact is clear from the report of District Transport Officer, Jallandhar dt 10.07.2015. License having renewal noPB-0820050164554 dated 6.07.2015 given by complainant  to  answering Ops, is valid with effect from 6.07.2015. Ld counsel for Ops further averred that vide letter dt 4.09.2015, complainant was informed that his claim has been closed as no claim due to the reason that he was not holding effective driving license at the time of accident. Surveyor of Ops assessed the loss occurred to the car of complainant to the tune of Rs3,43,000/-in all on net off salvage loss basis and till date complainant has not objected to Survey Report that loss assessed by Surveyor is on lesser side, rather Surveyor assessed loss on the basis of terms and conditions of the Policy and therefore, complainant is not entitled for any claim as sought by him. He has prayed for dismissal of complaint. He has stressed on documents Ex OP-1 to 12.

9                             We have heard the learned counsel for the parties and have very carefully gone through the affidavits and documents on the file.

10                        The case of the complainant is that he was the owner of car which was fully insured with Ops. The said car met with an accident on 15.04.2015 during the period of insurance and in this accident, car of complainant was fully damaged. Complainant duly informed Ops regarding said accident, who appointed a Surveyor to assess the loss caused to his car. The Surveyor assessed the loss to the car as total damage and submitted his report with Ops but till today, Ops have not paid the insurance claim of his car to him. In reply, Ops submitted that at the time of accident, complainant did not have effective and valid driving license to the drive the vehicle and the validity of his Driving License was expired much prior from the date of accident. So, as per terms and conditions of the Insurance Policy and provisions of Motor Vehicle Act, they rejected the claim of complainant as No Claim. In their support, they put reliance on the Driving License Verification Report dated 29.06.2015 Ex. OP-4 issued by District Transport Office, Jallandhar and submitted by Arun Kumar and Company/Surveyor and Loss Assessor. In this report, it is submitted that Driving License of complainant bearing no.3308 was valid upto 25.05.2010 and the accident took place on 15.04.2015 and as such, on that day, the complainant had no effective Driving License to drive the vehicle. So, his claim was rejected.

11                                    To controvert the stand of Ops, the complainant produced copy of Driving License Verification Report dt 29.06.2015 as Ex C-4 issued by District Transport Officer, Jallandhar and submitted by Arun Kumar and Company, which shows that alleged Driving License of complainant is valid up to 25.05.2020. It is interesting that both these Driving License Verification Reports are of same date and bear same reference number i.e 2015/DLV/5802/NIC and submitted by same person i.e Arun Kumar and Company. In one the validity of Driving License is shown as 25.05.2020, while in other, it is mentioned as 25.05.2010. In these circumstances, how we can ascertain which Verification Report is correct. Whether  it is that which is produced by complainant or of Ops. So, in these circumstances, we cannot rely on these two Verification Reports. Further to prove his case, complainant produced Driving License Verification Report dt 21.07.2015as Ex C-5 issued by District Transport Officer, Jallandhar whereby the date of issuance of Driving License is shown as 26.05.2005 and valid upto 5.07.2020. Ops themselves produced another Driving License Verification Report dt 18.08.2015 as Ex OP-5 and in this Verification Report, the validity of Driving License is shown as 5.07.2020. Moreover, the Ops themselves produced copy of Driving License of complainant which is submitted by him to Ops at the time of accident and on this Driving License, the date of validity is mentioned as 25.05.2020. The copy of Driving License is Ex OP-2.

12                    From the above discussion and evidence produced by complainant, we come to the conclusion that at the time of accident, the complainant had valid and effective Driving License to drive the vehicle and the Ops have wrongly and illegally repudiated the claim of complainant on false ground that he had no valid Driving License at the time of accident. All these acts of Ops amount to deficiency in service and trade mal practice on the part of Ops and therefore, complaint in hand is hereby allowed. The Ops are ordered to pay Rs3,43,000/-as insurance claim of the car of the complainant as assessed by Surveyor in his Survey Report dt 31.08.2015 Ex OP-9 alongwith interest at the rate of 12% per anum from 4.09.2015 when Ops repudiated the claim of complainant till final realization. Ops are further directed to pay Rs15,000/-to complainant as compensation for harassment and mental agony suffered by him alongwith litigation expenses of Rs5000/-. Compliance of this order be made within one month of the receipt of the copy of the order, failing which complainant shall be entitled to proceed under Section 25 and 27 of Consumer Protection Act. Copy of the order be supplied to parties free of cost as per law. File be consigned to record room.

Announced in Open Forum

Dated :11.05. 2016                 

                                 Member            Member                  President

   (P Singla)     (Parampal Kaur)     (Ajit Aggarwal)