A District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum here has directed an insurance company to compensate a policy holder by paying over $2 lakh for repudiating a claim on unjust grounds.
Directing the Bajaj Allianz General Insurance company to pay in the 2012 rates, the consumer panel said: “We are of the considered view that the policy in question was issued on the basis of physical condition of the deceased and he had been found physically fit and therefore, it cannot be said that any suppression or any earlier ailment had vitiated the contract of issuing policy to the deceased insured.”
“A contract of this nature cannot be termed bad and be terminated on ground of having obtained by fraud or can be declared as vitiated on facts which were not in existence on the day of contract,” the Bench observed.
The directions came when the consumer forum was hearing a plea moved by city residents Shalini and Gaurav Dar, nominees to the policy, who challenged the repudiation of the travel insurance policy.
In the complaint, it was contended that despite providing relevant documents, the insurance company rejected the claim on grounds that the “treatment of deceased arose out of pre-existing ailment” that was not included under the policy.