Forum directs insurer to pay Rs 7 lakh to complainant

The Thane District Consumer Redressal Forum today held a private insurance company responsible for deficiency in service and ordered it to pay Rs 7 lakh to the complainant.
President of the forum, Umesh Jhawalikar and member N D Kadam in their order held that the Max Newyork Life Insurance Company Ltd had failed to utilise the amount paid to it by the complainant for renewal of the policy.
The forum in its order disagreed with the rejection of the insurance claim by the complainant Gautam Namdeo Sonawale, and ordered the company to pay Rs 7 lakh, including the claim amount, compensation and the legal expenses within a period of three months from today failing which they have to pay an interest at 6% per annum.

The complainant had said that his daughter Darshana had taken an insurance from the company on October 16, 2007, and paid a premium of Rs 11,000. She again paid Rs 15,000 on October 22 after the company demanded it in advance for the renewal of the policy.
"However, the insurer failed to utilise the amount for the renewal of the policy and when the girl died on December 22, 2008, her father claimed Rs 6.89 lakh. But the company refused to pay saying the policy had not been renewed," Sonawale said.
The claimant then approached the forum, which observed that the additional amount of Rs 15,000 was utilised by the insurance company towards the policy of a different person.

"The insurance company had done this without intimating the complainant," the forum said, adding that the insurance company ought to have used the additional amount for renewal, which it did not.
The company had failed to safeguard the interest of the policy holder even if the policy was not renewed, it observed.