Gandhinagar: Insurance claim rejected over typo error, consumer court asks firm to pay up

A consumer court in Gandhinagar has asked an insurance company to pay a woman Rs 55,600 with 9% interest towards medical cost for her cataract. It has also awarded the woman Rs 5,000 for expenses towards the litigation.

The verdict comes after the woman, Bindu Patel dragged the Oriental Insurance Company to court after they rejected her claim of Rs 55,600 towards a cataract operation. Mukesh Parikh, president of the Consumer Protection and Action Committee said the woman had got a Rs 3 lakh medical insurance in 2011.

"She had regularly paid the premium. In 2012-13 while renewing the insurance, the company issued her a new policy documents which misspelled her mother Aghora Ranjan's name as Rajan. It also mentioned her sex as male instead of female," said Parikh.

He said that in the subsequent years the renewal had the correct name. "She was later diagnosed with cataract and underwent an operation and claimed Rs 55,600 by way of insurance for the cost. The company rejected it on the grounds that the name and sex mentioned were wrong," said Parikh.

He said despite providing proof to the contrary, the company refused to accept its mistake and forced Bindu to knock the door of the consumer court. Parikh said it had become the norm for the insurance company to reject claims under petty pretext to harass claimants.