Bringing a Insurance Company to its knees; the consumer court way

From CF

The consumer may be termed as the king by lip-servicing companies but its our Consumer courts that are really the custodians of consumer rights. Consumer rights wouldn’t have evolved much nor errant companies bought to book quickly hadn’t consumer courts been so active on this front. They are the silent sentinels & among the unsung heroes of our system, a system that has to be credited for providing faster justice on issues touching the life of normal citizens. I am saying this borne out of my experience recently when I had to haul Royal Sundaram (a Health Insurance Co) to the Consumer dispute redressal forum and make them pay up for my Insurance claim which they had declined on flimsy grounds (Case # 1122/2009 filed before the Hon 2 Additional district consumer dispute redressal forum, Bangalore urban district)

In my case it was the oft repeated instance when the claim of insurance made by the insured, the insurance company manipulates that your claim is in violation of the insurance policy or your claim is not maintainable as it comes within the purview of Exclusion clause of the policy. Royal Sundaram went on a misadventure and made an effort to repudiate my claim due to misinterpretation of its ambiguous and vague Terms & Conditions embedded in the insurance policy. That they ended up settling my claims with a penalty as mandated by the Consumer forum with severe indictment was a lesson that could detest them in future.

While dismissing the plea made by Royal Sundaram , the Hon consumer court observed “The opposite party could have fairly & rightly accepted the claim and paid the amount soon after receipt of the claim from the complainant. A very legal and genuine claim of the complainant has been unnecessarily repudiated by the opposite party. The opposite party should change its attitude towards the customers”.

Mine may have been one of the 40,000 cases that were filed in these forums up to 2009 but with 35 state consumer disputes redressal commissions and 610 district consumer forums in the country, am sure every one of it is being heard diligently and being disposed off in the shortest possible time. A consumer only has to have the belief in the system and the necessary perseverance. The Insurance company hired a lawyer to fight the case & I pleaded on my own without one; it took about 7 months and about 5 hearings for settlement .

Wishing all my readers a Happy & Prosperous New Year!