Sri Utpal Kumar- Bhattacharya, Member

Challenging the Order dated 20-12-2017, passed by the Ld. District Forum, Hooghly in CC/29/2016, whereby the complaint case has been allowed, this statutory Appeal u/s 15 of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 has been initiated by the Life Insurance Co. Ltd.

The bone of contention between the parties centres around one policy, namely, ‘Market Plus Policy’ being issued by the Appellant in favour of the Respondent.  Post maturity, the Respondent asked for refund of the maturity proceeds thereof which, however, was turned down by the Appellant leading to filing of the complaint case.  Defending its decision, the Appellant claimed that everything was done in accordance with the binding terms and conditions of the policy in question.

We have attentively heard the submission advanced by the respective parties and perused the documents on record carefully.

Undisputedly, the policy could be surrendered on completion of three years from the date of commencement of the policy, but before the date of vesting.  In any case, a window was kept open in the policy keeping in mind the interests of needy persons stipulating that, in case of medical exigency, the policyholder would be entitled to get back the money even after the date of maturity of the policy concerned. 

In such circumstances, it was incumbent on the part of the Respondent to furnish requisite medical papers to establish the bona-fide of her requirement. The Respondent though stated in her petition of complaint that she was in urgent need of money to meet huge medical expenditure of her nearest family members, not a single scrap of paper is placed before me from the side of the Respondent to substantiate such fact.  It was a contractual obligation that ought to be religiously adhered to by the Respondent – there was no escaping from it.  Given that the Appellant acted within the four corners of the policy in question, the decision to allow the complaint case got no leg to stand on and hence cannot be upheld from legal point of view.

In such premises, we allow this Appeal.  Consequent thereof, the impugned order stands set aside.