NEW DELHI: Coming to the rescue of thousands of stranded people of flood-affected Jammu and Kashmir region, the Supreme Court on Friday directed the insurance companies to disburse 50 per cent of the insured amount for policies at the earliest.
A Division Bench of Chief Justice H L Dattu on Friday directed insurance companies to pay 50 per cent of the insured amount for policies above `25 lakh and 95 per cent for policies below `25 lakh as interim relief to people who lost their properties in the recent floods.
The court refused to interfere with the Jammu and Kashmir High Court order to the companies to pay the claims of flood-affected people and rejected their plea seeking one month’s time to carry out the survey before settling the claims.
“Sometimes we have to ignore the rules and regulation in the interest of the people suffering from natural calamities”, the Bench said, adding “The Chief Justice of the High Court has seen the tragedy with his own eyes and he is justified in passing the order”.
“We are not going to change even a word in the High Court order”, Chief Justice Dattu said.
The insurance companies United India, National, Oriental India and New India Insurance submitted that till October 9, 2014, they have received 9,917 claims of an estimated amount of `980.49 crore and they have already made 983 cheques of a total amount of `25.104 crore.