The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) via new circular (IRDA/HLTH/MISC/CIR/216/09/2011) directed, all life and non-life insurance companies, not to reject policyholders’ claims due to any delay in submission of documents while filing a claim if the delay is due to valid reasons. IRDA has also asked the insurance companies to incorporate wordings to this effect in the policy contracts.
IRDA also stated that the policyholder should intimate and submit the required documents to his insurer within the stipulated time so that the insurer may start post claim activities like investigation, loss assessment, provisioning and claim settlement. But at the same time, the regulator feels that insurers should also be sensitive towards sudden emotional setbacks and inevitable circumstances of the policyholder for failure to inform the insurer and submit documents on time.