Sri Ramachandra Das, President - This complaint has been filed under section 12 of C.P Act by the complainant against the OP with prayer for compensation of Rs.30,000/- and litigation expenses of Rs.10,000/- for mental agony and harassment.
The complainant case is that since 16/8/2011 he is an account holder of Account No.30170100003567 of OP's bank. He being non-loanee agriculturist to cover his crop under National Agricultural Insurance scheme deposited the documents along with premium of Rs.381/- on 14/9/2015 in OPs Bank. The OPs bank did not send the premium amount of Rs.381/- by D.D to Insurance company within stipulated period due to which he was deprived to avail the benefits under the scheme . The complainant requested severally to the OP for sending the DD to Insurance company but it was in vain. The pleader notice was sent to the OP on 06/11/2015 for taking appropriate action but the OP did not respond and replied in hap-hazard manner. The complainant suffered irreparable loss for the deficiency of service on the part of the OP for which he filed this complaint on 13/01/2016 with the prayer mentioned above.
The OP appeared and filed the written version on 29/3/2016 admitting the complainant is account holder of the OP bearing Account No.30170100003567 and has deposited Rs.381/- on 14/9/2015 in the said account. Further he stated in order to cover under the crops insurance scheme a non loanee agriculturist, the Agriculture department of Govt. of Odiaha is to prepare a list of Agriculturist and submit the same in the Bank to cover him under crop Insurance scheme who have account in the Bank. The individual agriculturist is to submit a request letter to the Bank to cover him in the said insurance scheme and also to authorise bank official in a request letter to debit the premium amount from their account and deposit the said amount in Crop Insurance Scheme. In this case the Govt. of Odisha did not prepare and submit the list of agriculturist to the Bank and the complainant did not request the Bank for the said purpose. The complainant did not deposit any genuine document or any specific request letter to the Bank. The OP replied on 20/11/2015to the notice of the complainant dated 06/11/2015 that the OP is not liable for any amount claimed in this complaint as there was no deficiency or negligence of service on its part. There was no cause of action to file this complaint and it is frivolous , vexatious so it is not maintainable and is to be dismissed with cost under section 26 of C.P Act.
On the above pleadings of the parties the following issues have been framed for the determination of this complaint.
1. Whether the Agriculture department , Govt. of Odisha is to send the name of non-loanee Agriculturist to the Bank who have their account to cover them under Crop Insurance Scheme ?
2. Whether the individual agriculturist to submit a request letter to the Bank to cover him under the said Insurance Scheme and to authorise the Bank Official to debit the premium amount from his account to deposit in the scheme ?
3. Whether the documents such as proposal letter for non-loanee Agriculturist , certificate of cultivation by Agriculture deportment and declaration regarding undertaking by non-agriculturist submitted by the complainant before the OP Bank where sufficient to include him under Crop Insurance Scheme?
4. Whether there was any deficiency of service on the part of the OP in not forwarding the premium to the Insurance Company ?
5. To what relief (s) if any ?
The complainant filed his evidence on affidavit dated 26/4/2016 and relied the xerox copy of the documents filed along with the complaint and on 05/2/2016, The OP filed his evidence on affidavit dated 10/5/2016 and filed no documents.
FINDINGS
lssue No.1 & 2 - This issue is taken up first to find out if the Agricultural department, Govt. of Odisha has to prepare a list of non-loanee Agriculturalist having their bank account and to send the same list to the Bank to cover under crop Insurance scheme and if the complainant has to give any request letter to the OP to cover him under the scheme and to deduct premium from his account . The complainant in his complaint and affidavit stated that he deposited all the genuine documents before the Bank to cover him under National Agricultural Insurance Scheme on 14/9/2015 and also deposited Rs.381/- to-wards premium of the Insurance by cash (xerox copy of Bank pass Book filed on 05/02/2016 ) In the other hand the OP in his written version and in affidavit strongly insisted that it is mandatory for the Agriculture Department,
- 5 -
Govt. of Odisha to prepare and send the list of Agriculturalist to the Bank for the said scheme. In order to substantiate this ;submission the OP did not file any Govt circular or any circular of the Bank
The National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (NAIS) was introduced by the Govt. of the India from Rabi 1999-2000 session to protect the farmers against losses suffered by them due to crop failure on account of Natural calamities . The Scheme was implemented by Agriculture Insurance Company of India. The Scheme is available to all the Farmers, loanee and non-noanee, irrespective of size of their holding. The scheme covers all Food crops (cereals , Millets land pulses) and Oil seeds and annual , commercial/Horticultural crops. At present, 10% subsidy on premium is available to small and marginal Farmers. The National Crop Insurance scheme (India) in its salient features of the scheme at para 18 regarding management of the scheme, monitoring and review it has been envisaged that “ In respect of loanee farmers, the bank shall collect the premium along with the declarations and send to Implementing Agency (IA) with the prescribed time limit . However in areas where IA has requisite infrastructure , a non- loanee farmer will have option to send premium along with declaration, directly to IA with in the time limits ”
From the above scheme it is clearly understood that a non-loanee farmer beside sending premium l;and deceleration directly to I.A also can submit his premium along with the declaration to the Bank who would send it to Impel meting Agency to cover the scheme . The complainant on 14/9/2015 has submitted the proposal letter for non-loanee agriculturist under National Agricultural Insurance Scheme mentioning total area of his cultivation with the rate of premium Rs.381/- along with the certificate signed by Asst. Agriculture Officer, Nayagarh regarding cultivation of area of land by the complainant and with his status as marginal farmers and also a declaration signed by the complainant stating that he has not availed any type of loan for Kharif 2015 for crop Insurance and has undertaken to be held liable if any type of discrepancy found later . The complainant also submitted the xerox copy of pleader notice dated 06/11/2015. From the xerox copy of OPs Bank passbook shows that on 14/9/2015 he has deposited Rs.381/- by cash to the OPs Bank. The OP in his affidavit though not mention in his written version stated that complainant has not submitted the counter foil of the DD application and the deposited amount Rs.381/- was not for the purpose of Insurance scheme and it was not mentioned in the deposit form so it was impossible for the Bank official to know the said amount was for the purpose of Insurance scheme and without written authority of the complainant and the OP can not prepare the DD and transfer the same to the insurance company. The above evidence mention in the affidavit was not mentioned in the written version Therefore this evidence can be waived as these are beyond pleading.
Whenever any customer or a non-loanee Agriculturist deposits the aforesaid documents before the OP Bank, the Bank does not give any receipt in favour of the depositor. In this case the bank has not given any receipt while receiving the aforesaid documents. In order to save its skin the OP Bank has taken the above plea which is not tenable. The amount of premium Rs.381/- mentioned in the proposal form, the same amount has been deposited by cash on the same day i.e. 14/9/2015 which clearly reveals these aforesaid documents were submitted with the premium of Rs.381/- to cover him under Insurance scheme. The scheme never say that the Agriculture Deptt. has to prepare the list of non-loanee agriculturist and send the same to the Bank. It is the bank who receive the proposal form, with premium and undertake for sending onward to implementing Agency. The complainant not to give any separate request letter to OP to include him in Insurance scheme and deduct the premium from his account.
Issue No. 3 & 4 : In issue No.1 & 2 we have held that it was not necessary for the Agriculture Deptt. Govt. of Odisha to prepare a list of non-loanee agriculturalist and send it to the OP Bank for the purpose of Insurance scheme. Like wise the complainant was not to give any separate request letter to include him in the Insurance scheme and to debit the premium from his account as he deposited the premium by cash. The complainant who had submitted the proposal form, certificate of Asst. Agriculture Officer as he has cultivated A1-99 decimals being a marginal farmer and the complainant has given an undertaking with declaration that he has not availed the loan and will be responsible for any discrepancy, those documents were sufficient to include him under the Insurance Scheme to get the benefit. The OP bank negligently did not send those documents with premium of Rs.381/- to the Implementing Agency as per the scheme to include the complainant for insurance of his crops. It is completely deficiency of service on the part of the OP.
Issue No.5 : We have held in previous issues that even though the complainant had submitted the genuine documents with premium of Rs.381/- in the OPs bank but the OP did not send those to the Implementing Agency which is a negligence and deficiency of service on the part of the OP. Therefore the OP has to pay the compensation to the complainant for his loss and mental agony with litigation expenses.
Hence we allow the complaint and order that ;
ORDER
The complaint is allowed on contest. The OP is directed to pay the compensation of Rs.20,000/- ( Rupees twenty thousand ) only for the loss and mental agony and Rs.5000/- ( Rupees five thousand ) only to-wards the litigation expenses to the complainant within two months from the date of this final order failing which the complainant is to realise the same n due process of law with interest at the rate 12% per annum from the date of order till its realisation.
The final order is prepared by us, corrected,
signed, sealed and pronounced in the open
Forum on this 07th June , 2016
