HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad-III District Consumer Forum has directed the postal department to pay Rs 20, 000 as compensation to a widow for failing to clear the insurance amount of her husband, in addition to the Rs 2 lakh, the amount covered by the Postal Life Insurance (PLI) policy.
K Narasimha, an employee of APCPDCL, took a PLI Policy for Rs 2 lakh on September 21, 2010 when he was aged 51. His wife, K Padma, was shown as a nominee in the said policy. Narasimha was very prompt and regular in payment of monthly premium which was Rs 2,590, and was hale and hearty while taking the policy. After nearly two years, he fell sick and died on March 28, 2012 at Yashoda Hospital in Hyderabad. His wife submitted the claim form along with all the relevant documents. She claimed that the postal department had not even cared to settle the claim and made abnormal delay. According to her, the deputy divisional manager (DDM) of the Postal Life Insurance Office summoned Narasimha’s service record through the the superintendent of post offices, Wanaparthy, Mahbubnagar district from the employer of the deceased and inquired whether the policyholder had obtained any medical leave previously. The said service record revealed that Narasimha had never availed any medical leave. The same was confirmed by the superintendent of post offices vide letter to the DDM on April 3, 2013.
Later, the superintendent of post offices, Wanaparthy and the chief postmaster-general, without assigning any valid reasons, have rejected the claim of the complainant vide letter dated June 28, 2013. In the said letter they mentioned the name of the policyholder as K Koteshwar Rao instead of K Narsimha.
On October 28, 2013 Padma served a legal notice to the superintendent of post offices, Wanaparthy, DDM of Postal Life Insurance , and the chief postmaster-general, demanding payment of the death claim amount. She claimed that their acts and deeds clearly constituted not only deficiency in service but also amounted to unfair trade practices. She then approached the consumer forum for the insured amount and compensation.
The insurance officials claimed that the death summary issued by Yashoda Hospital revealed that the insured had been suffering from hypertension (HTN) and coronary artery disease (CAD) for two years. Asserting that there was no deficiency in their company’s service to the complainant, they requested the forum to dismiss the complaint with exemplary costs. “It clearly proved that the late insured policyholder had furnished wrong information/suppressed the facts about his health while taking the PLI policy. So the PLI policy has become void and liable. Accordingly, the death claim was rejected vide the letter of chief postmaster-general, Hyderabad-1 dated June 28, 2013 and the payments made by the late insured was forfeited and credited to the government account,” the respondents said in their written submission.
During trial the forum observed that although the company officials claimed that the insurer had been suffering from some disease, they did not produce an iota of evidence that he was already having diseases HTN & CAD prior to taking the policy and that he was taking treatment. “The life assured may be having such disease but there is no evidence to show that he was aware of having those diseases. In such a case it cannot be said that the life assured had suppressed the alleged diseases,” the forum said.
Forum president Y Chandrasekhara Reddy and members D Mahesh Kumar and C Nirmala observed that there was deficiency in service on the part of the opposite parties and passed an order in favour of Padma. They directed the postal department to pay her the total insured amount of Rs 2 lakh towards the death claim of her husband. They directed the opposite parties to pay Rs 2 lakh along with an interest at 9 pc per annum from the date of the claim till its realisation, to pay Rs 20,000 towards compensation and Rs 2,000 towards costs to the complainant.