Court ruled the insurance company must submit the document specifying the ‘exclusion’ clause to a policy holder to claim immunity from the liability.
If an insurance company hides the fact that he (the subscriber of a policy or credit card) won’t be entitled to claim compensation in case of an accident while he’s in an inebriated state, it will be liable to pay the monetary relief as awarded by the consumer court.
In a major ruling that allays the well-settled perception that a drunk driver or his family loses the right to claim compensation from the insurance company, the Supreme Court has ruled that the insurance company must submit the document specifying the ‘exclusion’ clause to a policy holder to claim immunity from the liability.
Failing this, the company is liable to compensate the victim or his bereaved family, a bench of justices GS Singhvi and Sudhansu Jyoti Mukhopadhaya ruled while dismissing an appeal filed by Royal Sundaram Alliance Insurance Co Limited.
RSAICL had challenged the orders passed by the Maharashtra’s consumer redressal forum and the National Consumers Disputes Redressal Commission that directed it to pay Rs8 lakh to Mumbai resident Sangeeta Deepak Tolani whose husband died when his two-wheeler was hit by a dumper on April 22, 2002, in Mumbai. It was reported that the vehicle’s driver was driving rashly.
Tolani initiated the claim proceedings saying as her husband had two credit cards issued by Citibank and Standard Chartered banks, and had been insured for accident cover too, she was entitled to claim the legitimate statutory relief from Sundaram.
The company argued that since her husband was drunk it wasn’t liable to pay her anything.
In its ruling on Friday, the apex court acknowledged the fact stressed upon by the tribunals that “the accident occurred due to the dumper driver’s rash and negligent driving, and the deceased being intoxicated had, in no manner, contributed to the accident”. It was also pointed out that RSAICL couldn’t rely upon the ‘exclusion clause’ contained in the policy document because the “deceased was not made aware of it”.
Tolani will get Rs7.5 lakh with an annual interest of 9% from April 22, 2002.
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