Date of filing : 07-06-2011
Date of Disposal: 18-07-2012
DISTRICT CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL FORUM, ANANTAPUR.
PRESENT: - Sri T.Sundara Ramaiah, B.Com., B.L., President (FAC)
Sri S.Niranjan Babu, B.A., B.L.,Male Member
Sri Kum. M.Sreelatha, B.A., B.L., Lady Member
Wednesday, the 18th day of July, 2012
C.C.NO. 112/2011
Between:
K.Gowramma
W/o Late K.R.Hanuma Reddy
r/o Yerrampalli Village,
Gummagatta Mandal
Anantapur District. …. Complainant
Vs.
- The Branch Manager,
Andhra Pragathi Grameena Bank,
Bhoopasamudram post,
Gummagatta Mandal,
Anantapur District.
- The Divisional Manager,
United India Insurance Company Ltd.,
11/170-B, Meda Mansion, 1st Floor,
Subash Road, Anantapur. ….. Opposite parties
This case coming on this day for final hearing before us in the presence of Sri C.Surendranath Reddy & Sri A.Mallikarjuna Reddy, advocates for the complainant and 1st opposite party is called absent and Sri A.G.Neelakanta Reddy, advocate for the 2nd opposite party and after perusing the material papers on record and after hearing the arguments of both sides, the Forum delivered the following:
O R D E R
Sri S.Niranjan Babu, Male Member: - This complaint has been filed by the complainant under section 12 of Consumer Protection Act, 1986 against the opposite parties 1 & 2 claiming a sum of Rs.50,000/- towards Insurance Policy amount with interest @12% p.a. from the date of death and Rs.10,000/- towards mental agony and other expenses.
2. The brief facts of the complaint are that :- The complainant is the wife of the deceased K.R.Hanuma Reddy, who is an agriculturist. The 1st opposite party is the scheduled Bank and 2nd opposite party is the Insurance Company and both the opposite parties have a joint venture in providing insurance coverage to the farmers, who are having the accounts in 1st opposite party-Bank. The deceased K.R.Hanuma Reddy had account bearing No.PKCC-16022/20090208 in the 1st opposite party-Bank and the 1st opposite party has deducted premium of Rs.5/- for every year from the account-holder in order to cover the risk of life to a sum of Rs.50,000/- in case of accidental death of the account-holder. Accordingly, the 1st opposite party has deducted premium of Rs.5/- from the account of deceased on 31-07-2009 and 31-07-2010 vide policy No.051000/47/10/43/0000129. The premium dt.31-07-2010 covers the period from 01-08-2010 to 31-07-2011. The deceased K.R.Hanuma Reddy died in a road accident on 01-08-2010 i.e. during the coverage period of insurance under the said policy. Hence, the complainant made a claim to the opposite parties for payment of the Insurance amount for the death of her husband in an accident and submitted all the relevant records to the 1st opposite party. In turn, the 1st opposite party has recommended to the 2nd opposite party for settlement of the claim. Subsequently, the 2nd opposite party repudiated the claim vide letter dt.09-02-2011 stating that no premium was debited for the policy period from 01-08-2010 to 31-07-2011. But in fact the 1st opposite party has deducted premium of Rs.5/- from the account of the deceased on 31-07-2010 as such the policy was in force as on the date of death of the deceased. For the reasons stated above the opposite parties 1 & 2 are under contractual obligation to pay insurance amount to the complainant for the accidental death of the deceased, who is the husband of the complainant. But the 2nd opposite party has repudiated the claim with untenable grounds and it committed deficiency of service for which they are liable to compensate the complainant.
3. The 1st opposite party is called absent.
4. The 2nd opposite party filed counter stating that no premium has been debited to 2nd opposite party-company by the 1st opposite party as on the date of alleged accidental death in order to cover the risk. Since the premium has not been debited to 2nd opposite party by 1st opposite party, the question of acceptance of risk does not arise and as such the 2nd opposite party is not liable to pay any amount of compensation under the contract of insurance. The 2nd opposite party submits that admittedly the deceased died on 01-08-2010 in an accident and that the period of insurance under the said Kishan Credit Card Scheme Insurance Policy is from 01-08-2010 to 31-07-2011 and that the 1st opposite party-Bank has debited the insurance premium on the following dates:
Sl.No. Date of premium debt Policy period Date of Death
1. 31-07-2009 01-08-2008 to 31-07-2009
2. 31-07-2010 01-08-2009 to 31-07-2010
3. No Debt 01-08-2010 to 31-07-2011 01-08-2010
From the above table the 2nd opposite party states that as the 1st opposite party has not debited the insurance premium for the policy period from 01-08-2010 to 31-07-2011, during which the deceased died in an accident. Further the 2nd opposite party submits that the period of Insurance under KCC Scheme Insurance Policy is from 01-08-2010 to 31-07-2011 and that premium should be debited before the death of the deceased and that the Insurance premium should have been debited on 01-08-2010 and that the insurance premium has not been debited by 1st opposite party for the insurance policy period from 01-08-2010 to 31-07-2011. As such the 2nd opposite party is not liable to pay any compensation under the said policy. The 2nd opposite party further submits that there is abnormal delay in giving intimation to the 2nd opposite party about the death of the deceased in the said accident and the complainant has grossly violated the terms and conditions of KCC Scheme Insurance Policy. Hence, the 2nd opposite party is not liable to pay any compensation under the said policy. The allegations of the complainant that the 1st opposite party has debited premium of Rs.5/- for every year from the account of the deceased to cover the risk and that the premium dt.31-07-2010 covers the period from 01-08-2010 to 31-07-2011 and as the deceased died on 01-08-2010 which is within the coverage period of the insurance policy is denied as the above allegations are invented only for the purpose of this unjust claim. Hence, the 2nd opposite rejected the claim of the complainant by repudiating the claim. Hence, there is no deficiency of service on the part of this opposite party.
5. Basing on the above pleadings, the points that arise for consideration are:-
1. Whether there is deficiency of service on the part of the opposite parties 1 & 2 ?
2. To what relief?
6. To prove the case of the complainant, the evidence on affidavit of the complainant has been filed and marked Exs.A1 to A7 documents. On behalf of the 2nd opposite party, evidence on affidavit of the 2nd opposite party has been filed and marked Ex.B1 to B8 documents.
7. Heard both sides.
8. POINT NO.1 - After hearing the arguments of both the counsels and after perusing the documents as per Ex.A1, which is Pass Book Extract of the deceased, there is clear mention of debit of Rs.5/- towards premium on 31-07-2009 which starts the coverage period from 01-8-2009 to 31-07-2010 and another debit of Rs.5/- on 31-07-2010 and the period of coverage starts from 01-08-2010 to 31-07-2011. But whereas the counsel for the 2nd opposite party argued that the payment of premiums are made on 31-07-2009 and the period of coverage for the said premium started on 01-08-2008 to 31-07-2009 and the next premium of Rs.5/- debited covers the period from 01-08-2009 to 31-07-2010 and there is no coverage of insurance from 01-08-2010 to 31-07-2011 during which period the deceased died.
9. The above arguments made by the counsel for the 2nd opposite party can not be taken into consideration as generally the period of insurance coverage starts only after receiving the premium but not as said by the opposite party counsel for the premium is paid on the date of closing of the coverage period. Hence, the premium deducted from the deceased account on 31-07-2009 pertains to the period of 01-08-2009 to 31-07-2010 and another premium collected on 31-07-2010 pertains to the period of 01-08-2010 to 31-07-2011. As per the records the death of the deceased occurred on 01-08-2010 in a road accident and the death occurred on the next day of deducting the premium by the 1st opposite party. Hence the death is within coverage period of insurance.
10. The letter addressed to the 2nd opposite party by 1st opposite party dt.05-01-2011 it is clearly mentioned that an amount of Rs.5/- is debited by 1st opposite party from the account of the deceased on 31-07-2010 stating that the insurance coverage is for further one year which means that the coverage starts from 01-08-2010 to 31-07-2011 and the said letter is marked as Ex.A6. This clearly confirms the date of commencement of the insurance policy for which the premium of Rs.5/- has been debited on 31-07-2010 from the account of the deceased Hanuma Reddy.
11. Even as per Exs.B2 and B3 in which the period of coverages’ are mentioned on the insurance policy as per Ex.B2 coverage period starts from 01-08-2009 to midnight of 31-07-2010 and as per Ex.B3 from 01-08-2010 to midnight of 31-07-2011.
12. In view of the above observations, we are of the view that the 2nd opposite party is liable to pay the insurance amount to the complainant as the premium amount of Rs.5/- was deducted from the deceased account on 31-07-2010 and the coverage period starts from 01-08-2010 to 31-07-2011 during which period the deceased died in a road accident i.e. 01-08-2010.
13. POINT NO.2 :- In the result , the complaint is allowed by directing the opposite party No.2 to pay to the complainant a sum of Rs.50,000/- with interest @ 9% p.a. from the date of death of the deceased till the date of realization and also to pay a sum of Rs.2,000/- towards costs of the complaint within 30 days from the date of this order. The complaint against opposite party No.1 is dismissed without costs.
Dictated to the Steno, transcribed by him, corrected and pronounced by us in open Forum, this the 18th day of July, 2012.
MALE MEMBER LADY MEMBER PRESIDENT (FAC)
DISTRICT CONSUMER FORUM DISTRICT CONSUMER FORUM DISTRICT CONSUMER FORUM
ANANTAPUR ANANTAPUR ANANTAPUR
APPENDIX OF EVIDENCE
WITNESSES EXAMINED
ON BEHALF OF THE COMPLAINANT: ON BEHALF OF THE OPPOISITE PARTIES
-NIL- -NIL-
EXHIBITS MARKED ON BEHALF OF THE COMPLAINANT
Ex.A1 – Statement of Account relating to deceased K.R.Hanumappa for the period from
01-01-2009 to 04-01-2011 issued by the 1st opposite party.
Ex.A2 - Photo copy of letter given by the complainant to the 2nd opposite party .
Ex.A3 - Photo copy of F.I.R. in Cr.No.89/2010 of Rayadurg P.S.
Ex.A4 - Photo copy of Postmortem Certificate relating to deceased K.R.Hanumappa.
Ex.A5 - Letter of the 2nd opposite party dt.30-08-2010 sent to the 1st opposite party.
Ex.A6- Letter dt.05-01-2011 sent by the 1st opposite party to the 2nd opposite party.
Ex.A7- Letter dt.09-02-2011 issued by the 2nd opposite party to the 1st opposite party.
EXHIBITS MARKED ON BEHALF OF THE OPPOSITE PARTY NO.2
Ex.B1 – Kishan Credit Card Scheme Policy relating to deceased K.R.Hanumappa
Issued by the 2nd opposite party for the period 01-08-2008 to 31-07-2009.
Ex.B2 – Kishan Credit Card Scheme Policy relating to deceased K.R.Hanumappa
Issued by the 2nd opposite party for the period 01-08-2009 to 31-07-2010.
Ex.B3 – Kishan Credit Card Scheme Policy relating to deceased K.R.Hanumappa
Issued by the 2nd opposite party for the period 01-08-2010 to 31-07-2011.
Ex.B4 - Statement of Account relating to deceased K.R.Hanumappa issued by the
1st opposite party.
Ex.B5 – Form of application for intimation of claim submitted by the complainant.
Ex.B6 - Letter dt.30-08-2010 sent by the 2nd opposite party to the 1st opposite party.
Ex.B7 - Letter dt.17-03-2011 issued by the 2nd opposite party to the 1st opposite party.
Ex.B8 - Letter dt.09-02-2011 issued by the 2nd opposite party to the 1st opposite party.
MALE MEMBER LADY MEMBER PRESIDENT (FAC)
DISTRICT CONSUMER FORUM DISTRICT CONSUMER FORUM DISTRICT CONSUMER FORUM
ANANTAPUR ANANTAPUR ANANTAPUR
Typed by JPNN
