NCDRC refuses to accept '1,163-day delay' in filing appeal

The apex consumer commission has refused to consider a woman's plea seeking condonation of delay of 1163 days in filing an appeal before it relating to the insurance claim of her deceased husband.
The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC), presided by Justice K S Chaudhari, also dismissed the appeal filed by Andhra Pradesh resident Bonda Kasi Annapurna, against an order passed by Andhra Pradesh State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission which had rejected her plea seeking insurance claim.
NCDRC said her appeal was liable to be dismissed as it was barred by limitation.
It rejected her plea to condone the delay saying there was no reasonable explanation for the time lapse.

"...No reasonable explanation has been given for the condonation of inordinate delay of 1163 days. Merely because complainant was from rural background, inordinate delay of more than 1,100 days cannot be condoned," NCDRC said.
The state commission had in December 2010 dismissed Annapurna's complaint seeking her husband's policy claim of Rs 25 lakh from Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Company Ltd after he died due to the injuries received after slipping from stairs in January 2008.

She had filed the appeal before NCDRC against the state commission's order after a delay of 1163 days.
Annapurna had submitted that the delay in filing the appeal occurred as she was residing in remote areas and was also having financial constraints.

According to Annapurna, her husband B V V Nageswara Rao, who had taken a policy of Rs 25 lakh from the insurance company, slipped from stairs and sustained injuries and later died while being brought to the hospital in 2008.
After his death, she had sought the claim from the company which was repudiated by it. Thereafter, she filed a complaint with state commission alleging deficiency on the part of the company.