Settling differences between two judges on the question of consequences of delay in informing theft of a vehicle to the insurance company, the Supreme Court has ruled that such delay by itself would not be a ground to reject the claim. In this case, Gurshinder Singh vs Shriram General Insurance, the person whose tractor was stolen had lodged a complaint with police but the vehicle could not be traced. He filed a claim before the insurer but it was rejected on the ground of delay of 52 days.
The consumer forum and the National Commission rejected the claim on the same ground. But the Supreme Court reversed their rulings and stated that “when an insured has lodged the FIR immediately after the theft and when the police after investigation have dodged a final report that the vehicle was not traced and when the surveyors/investigators appointed by the company have found the claim of the theft to be genuine, mere delay in intimating the insurance company cannot be a ground to deny the claim on the insured.”
