The Supreme Court has recently declined to hear an organisation’s plea which alleged that the LIC cheated lakhs of its consumers through its ‘Jeevan Saral’ insurance policy. A division bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Deepak Gupta took note of the submission of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the LIC, that a PIL under Article 32 of the Constitution should not be entertained as the aggrieved insurance purchaser can approach the consumer courts for redressal of grievances.
Tushar Mehta said that before coming out with a policy, the LIC takes the approval of the IRDAI. In addition to that, there was a mechanism to deal with the grievances. “We are not inclined to hear the public interest litigation (PIL),” the bench said. Senior advocate Arvind Datar who appeared for organization, namely, ‘Money Life Foundation’, stated that the ‘Jeevan Saral’ has cheated many customers, mainly, the retired persons of their hard-earned money.
According to the plea, the proposal form of the scheme did not have any provision to mention the lower maturity sum assured. Instead, it had a provision only for the higher death benefit. The plea alleged that even the policy documents did not have the maturity benefit printed and the customers may get lesser money than the total premium paid.
The organization has stated that the policyholders were not in a position in order to increase dispute individually and therefore, they came together to form a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) to pursue the case. The plea had sought the return of the premium of the policy-holders with 8% interest.
