Case Study 28 - Insurance firm fined Rs 2 lakh

Delhi State Consumer Commission has ordered an insurance company to pay over Rs 2 lakh as damages to a man injured in a road mishap involving his Honda City car, dismissing the firm's contention that it was a case of drunken driving. A bench of Justice Barkat Ali Zaidi and member Kanwal Inder, while upholding the Delhi district consumer forum's order, ordered New India Assurance Company to pay a total compensation of Rs 2,14,528 to vehicle owner Ravi Narang.
Narang had met the accident on national highway near Gurgaon in 2004. The mishap had resulted in injuries to him, besides damages to the car. The company (Honda) workshop had estimated a loss of over Rs 7 lakh as damages, while Narang had claimed a loss of Rs 3.32 lakh from the insurance company.
The consumer commission asked the insurance firm to pay damages to Narang dismissing its appeal, which contended that he was drunk while driving the car. The bench noted that none of the purported medical reports of the complainant, placed on record by the insurance firm, contained the name of the injured person or patient. "Therefore how can it be said that they relate to the complainant. No affidavit has been filed by the doctor to prove these reports in evidence," the bench said. "For these reasons, it can be safely said that these documents do not help in any manner to substantiate the contention of the appellant (insurance company) that the complainant was driving the vehicle at the time of accident in a drunken state and his case therefore falls under the Exception Clause of the Insurance Agreement," it said.
The company had contended that the 'Exclusion Clause' of the insurance policy stipulated that if the owner of the vehicle is driving vehicle in a drunken state, he is not entitled for insurance claim.