Insurance firm to pay car owner Rs 4L

Yamunanagar, April 7

The Yamunanagar District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (DCDRC) has asked two branches of an insurance company situated in Yamunanagar and Kaithal to jointly pay Rs 4.23 lakh to the owner of an Innova car, which met with an accident in Saharanpur district of Uttar Pradesh.

The amount includes Rs 3.23 lakh claim amount and Rs 1 lakh for punitive damages to compensate the complainant in all heads.

The order was passed by disputes redressal commission president Gulab Singh, members Jasvinder Singh and Sarvjeet Kaur recently.

The complainant, Bhupinder Singh of Yamunanagar district, is the registered owner of the car. The car was insured by the Yamunanagar branch of the insurance company for the period May 20, 2017 to May 19, 2018, showing the total capacity of the passengers in the car to be seven passengers. However, on January 31, 2018, the car was damaged in an accident caused by the driver of a truck in Saharanpur district.

The complainant filed the claim under the insurance policy, but the opponents repudiated the claim on the grounds that the car was being used for hire and rent purposes at the time of the accident.

The firm said the car was also carrying over seven passengers, which was a violation of the terms and conditions of the insurance policy.

The car owner claimed that he was going to Haridwar along with others and was not using the car on hire as a taxi.

The opponents allotted the survey of the car to surveyors on March 5, 2018, and the surveyors in interim motor survey report dated October 1, 2018 emphasised the payment of claim to the complainant on Net of Salvage Basis, including RC for Rs 3.23 lakh.

Later, as per the final report dated February 11, 2019, the claim was repudiated by the opponents.