This is one of the best announcement done by Supreme Court that people don’t have to suffer anymore with their insurance policy while claiming even if there is a delay. There has been an on-going issue while claiming insurance policy if there is a delay due to any reason.
Supreme Court has also said that this needs to be taken care by all insurance companies otherwise people will lose confidence in this industry.
A bench of Justice R K Agrawal and Justice S Abdul Nazeer set aside the verdicts of various consumer courts, including the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC), which had ruled that insurance companies could deny the benefit of cover for the delay in filing the claims.
A recent news that Supreme Court has asked “Reliance General Insurance Company” to pay Rs 8.35 lakh to a Hisar-based customer whose insured truck was stolen but his claim rejected on the grounds of delay in filing it.
Justice Nazeer (who wrote the judgment) said that “It is true that the owner has to intimate the insurer immediately after the theft of the vehicle. However, this condition should not bar settlement of genuine claims, particularly when the delay in intimation or submission of documents is due to unavoidable circumstances. The decision of the insurer to reject the claim has to be based on valid grounds. Rejection of the claims on purely technical grounds in a mechanical manner will result in loss of confidence of policyholders in the insurance industry”.
The court also said that a practical approach has to be taken in these type of cases because people who lose their vehicle may not go to the insurance company straight away rather they want to trace it first themselves.
So basically, facts need to be checked before rejecting the claim and claim should not be rejected just because there is a delay while contacting the insurance company.