MR. PRAVAT KUMAR PADHI, PRESIDENT:-
Complainant has filed C.C.Case No. 20/2020 U/s-35 of C.P.Act,2019 before this Commission seeking following relief:
“ Honbl’e Commission may kindly issue necessary direction to the Ops to settle the value of vehicle Rs. 3,60,000/-paid by the Complainant to the Op-1 along with interest rate of 12% P.A from the date Complainant paid the amount to Op-1 along with Rs. 50,000/- litigation expenses and compensation of mental agony.”
Brief fact of Complainant is that the Complainant is the registered owner of Maruti Swift Dezire bearing Regd. No. OR-02-BW-3115 and the said vehicle was insured with OP No.1 i.e, National Insurance Co Ltd. Bhubaneswar Branch on dt. 17.02.2017 vide policy No. is 163200311610000654 and its validity was from dt. 17.02.2017 to 16.02.2018. As per the policy valuation of the Complainant’s vehicle is total value is Rs. 3,60,000/- being declared by the insured. The said vehicle (Car) was sold by the Regd. owner (Prabitra Mohan Jena) on dt. 04.03.2017 to the Complainant and maintain the term of R.T.O. and sworn an affidavit produced before R.T.O. Bhubaneswar for change of ownership from the Regd. owner Pabitra Mohan Jena to Nirmala Kumar Nayak. Thereafter R.T.O. issued Registration certificate in favour of the Complainant. Unfortunately Complainant’s vehicle faced road accident near Alabanka Chhak N.H.5(A) on dt. 06.03.2017 at about 1.45 P.M.. In this accident two person died and driver sustained injury on the spot and car was totally damaged. Complainant came to the spot and immediately and informed the police officer on the date of occurrence. The Local Police Derabish IIC seized the vehicle and shifted all injured to medical for treatment. About this incident one Police case was registered at Derabish Police Station vide P.S.Case No. 28/2017 dt. 06.03.2017. Thereafter the Complainant submited the all documents in Police Station of the said vehicle. After investigation completed by the Police officer submitted final form as in connection with P.S. Case No. 28/17. The complainant lodged his claim before the authority in his office at Bhubaneswar. Further more when the Ops received the complaints claim, deputed a surveyor to investigate the matter. By the instruction of OpNo.1 Complainant deposited concerned paper, original R.C.Book, Smart card, Originals Insurance Policy, Bank Pass book & Xerox copy of Aadhar card, G.R. record certified copy, for it’s insurance claim of the cost of the vehicle mentioned in Insurance Policy to the surveyor deputed by the Opp Party. As per the surveyor report a letter was issued by the Op(National Insurance) to settlement the claim amount but the Ops did not settle the claim for which the Complainant has filed the present C.C.Case.
Opp Parties have filed their written version stating that the Ops admit to have issued a Motor-Private Car-package Policy bearing No. 163200311610000654 in respect of a car bearing Regd. No.OR-02-BW-3115 which stands in the name of Mr. Pabitra Mohan Jena covering risk of the insured which was valid from 17.02.2017 to 16.02.2018 subject to certain terms and conditions of the insurance Policy. The Insured Declared value (IDV) of the said vehicle was for Rs. 3,60,000/- marked as Annexure-A. The Insured Pabitra Mohan Jena lodged claim on dt. 06/03/2017 when the driver of car bearing Regd. No. OR-02-BW-3115 was returning from Chandikhole to Kendrapara on the way met an accident resulting death of two persons and another two persons were severe by injured and the said car was driven by Mr. Pravat Ranjan Mantry. One Police case lodged at Derabish Police Station vide P.S Case No. 28 dt. 06.03.2017 by Biswaranjan Parida. The alleged claim was intimated by the said insured Pabitra Mohan Jena to insurance on dt. 18.03.2017 after 2 days of the incident. These claim intimation is at Annexure-B. On dt. 16.03.2017, claim form alleged to have been submitted by Pabitra Mohan Jena are marked as Annexure-C. On receipts of the claim intimation the Op in compliance of guidelines issued by IRDA on dt. 10.05.2017 engaged Mr. Er. B.D.Ray, IRDA accredited Surveyor & Loss Assessor to investigate into the claim and to submit the report accordingly, report on dt. 12.02.2018 with his assessment of loss to the extent of Rs. 2,29,000/- as liability.
From the above facts, it is ascertained that the vehicle owned by Pabitra Mohan Jena was transferred by him to Sitakata Pattanaik with all formalities on dt. 24.09.2016. The Policy bearing No. 163200311610000654 in respect of a car bearing Regd. No.OR-02-BW-3115 was issued covering risk period from 17.02.2017 to midnight to 16.02.2018,which is almost after five months of handing over of the vehicle by Pabitra Mohan Jena in the name of Sitakanta Pattanaik, which clearly implies that the insurance policy was obtained by Sitakanta Pattanaik by impersonating the name of the owner.
The Ops have objected that though the claim was repudiated on dt. 08.05.2018 which was communicated to Pabitra Mohan Jena but the present case is filed on dt. 06.03.2020 which is near about 2 years from the date of claim repudiation as such the claim of the Complainant is hit by disclaimer clause of the policy which said that he has to challenge the repudiation within 1 calender months in the said case, since the insured has not approached the Commission within 12 calender of months the claim of the insured is liable to be dismissed.
We have gone through the entire case record and found that on the date of accident i.e, on dt.06.03.2017 the applications for change of ownership to the name of Complainant was pending and ultimately the ownership was changed to the name of Complainant. The original owner Sri Pabitra Mohan Jena against whose name the vehicle was insured is also not a claimant or disputed to have sold the vehicle. The intermediary person Sri Sitakanta Pattnaik has also not claimed the amount and finally the vehicle was transferred to Complainant within a short span of time after the accident. If we go through the disputed fact many complicacy giving rise to many dispute will arise. The purpose of C.P.Act, 2019 is to settle the dispute of consumers and not to create more litigation. So the fact remains as on the date of accident the application for change of ownership was pending with RTO and ownership was ultimately transferred to the Complainant which is not challenged by any one. Now question arises whether the Complainant can be deprived of getting the insured amount morely on the ground that the insurance was in the name of Sri Prabitra Mohan Jena, So Complainant cannot claim the insured amount. The Said objection of Ops is not tenable in view of the fact that the application for change of ownership was pending with RTO from 4th March, 2017 and RTO issued R.C. book in favour of Complainant on dt. 20.04.2017. the insurance was valid from 17.02.2017 to 16.02.2018 during which period accident occurred on 06.03.2017 at Alabanka Chhaka,NH-5A during currency of the Policy and the policy holder has not claimed the insured amount and challenge the change of ownership to Complainant and not disputed to have sold the vehicle and received the value of Car. Therefore we held that since the application for change of ownership was pending and ultimately ownership was changed on 20.04.2017 which is not under challenge since 20.04.2017, it is better to accept the Complainant as the owner of the vehicle as on the date of accident i.e, 06.03.2017 and we held that Complainant is entitled to get the claim, which the Complainant has claimed and on repudiation has filed the C.C.Case within the limitation period prescribed under section 69 of C.P.Act as such the objection on the ground of limitation is also not sustainable in the eyes of law.
We therefore direct the Opp.Parties to settle the dispute by paying the amount as per the Surveyor’s report an amount of Rs. 2,29,000/- with simple interest @6% from the date of accident to till date of payment. We also impose cost of Rs. 20,000/- towards mental agony and Rs. 5000/- towards cost of litigation.
With the aforesaid observation the C.C.Case No. 20/2020 is allowed and accordingly disposed off.
Issue extract of the order to the parties for compliance.
Pronounced in the open Commission, on this the 5th day of September,2023
I, agree.
Sd/- Sd/-
MEMBER PRESIDENT
