Seven years after the July 26 deluge, a consumer forum recently ordered the New India Insurance Company Ltd to pay a Juhu resident Rs 3.84 lakh he had claimed after his car was severely damaged due to the flood waters. The company will also pay the complainant A B Gupta Rs 10,000 as costs of the complaint.
A B Gupta owned a Honda city car which was insured with the company. The car was however inundated in the 2005 deluge and suffered severe damages Gupta then filed an insurance claim and sought Rs 5.16 lakh in damages. However, since the insurance company only sent Gupta cheque of Rs 1.98 lakh he refused to accept it. On a later date the insurance company sent Gupta Rs 3.76 lakh through its agent. Once again Gupta did not accept this and stated that the amount due to him was Rs 3.84 lakh.
In March 2007, Gupta sent a legal notice to the company and sought the amount with 18 % interest. However, the insurance refused. The company then said that since it had made an error in calculation the amount payable was only Rs 3.28 lakh. Aggrieved, Gupta filed a complaint in the forum on March 13, 2008.
The insurance company filed its response and said that according the estimations presented by surveyor, the damages incurred, it was liable to pay only Rs 1.98 lakh. The company also alleged that a senior surveyor was later appointed by them and he pegged the damage at Rs 3.84 lakh. It further stated that the repairs for the car had cost Gupta Rs 5.16 lakh . However, since Gupta had got a discount at the service centre where the car was repaired, he only paid Rs 3.76 lakh and this was the amount the insurance company had then agreed to pay him.
However, the forum held that insurance company could not keep accepting and rejecting the survey report according to its own will. The forum held the company guilty of deficiency of service.
