Insurance firm directed to pay 11L for unfair trade practice in settling claim
Raipur: The Chhattisgarh state consumer disputes redressal commission directed an insurance firm backed by a public-sector bank to pay Rs 11,16,801 to a Raipur-based firm for deficiency in service and unfair trade practice in settling a vehicle insurance claim.
The commission also awarded Rs 50,000 for mental agony and Rs 5,000 towards litigation costs.
The order, passed by President Justice Gautam Chourdiya and Member Pramod Kumar Varma, set aside an earlier ruling by the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, Raipur, which dismissed the complaint as premature.
The commission noted that keeping the claim pending for an extended period, especially after the damaged vehicle was handed over as per the insurer's instructions, amounted to deficiency in service and unfair trade practice.
"After accepting the surveyor's assessment, instructing disposal of the damaged vehicle, and its actual disposal, it was improper for the insurer to raise further objections. Keeping the claim pending despite receiving the wreck value amounts to deficiency in service and unfair trade practice. The insurer is liable to pay the remaining Rs 11,16,801, along with compensation for mental agony and litigation costs.
The district commission erred in holding the claim premature, making its order unsustainable and liable to be set aside," remarked the consumer commission on the case. The firm's car, insured with the insurance firm, met with an accident on Nov 8, 2019. The insurance company assessed the loss at Rs 11,16,801 and instructed the complainant to hand over the damaged vehicle to a salvage buyer, who paid Rs 13,30,000.
The firm alleged that despite these actions and assurances of payment, the remaining amount of Rs 11,16,801 was not disbursed.
A complaint was filed before the district commission seeking the balance amount and compensation.
The insurance firm, in its defence, said that the claim was pending as the complainant did not provide clarifications and relevant documents regarding the incident. The state commission, however, observed that the insurer already acted upon the surveyor's settlement recommendation and instructed the disposal of the vehicle's wreckage.
The commission noted that after proceeding towards settlement and the disposal of the wreckage, it was improper for the insurer to raise further objections.
The insurance company has been directed to pay the remaining assessed loss of Rs 11,16,801 with 6% annual simple interest from the date of filing the complaint until realisation, along with the compensation and litigation costs.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Indian Express
20 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Train reservation chart set to be prepared 8 hours before departure
The Railway Board has proposed preparing the seat reservation chart eight hours before a train's departure. The chart is currently prepared four hours before departure. Officials said that for trains departing before 2 pm, the chart will be prepared the previous day at 9 pm itself. A senior official of the Ministry of Railways said that under the current system, passengers arriving at stations from distant areas would have little clarity on their waitlisted ticket's status while leaving their home. 'Now, passengers will get the update on waitlist status well in advance. There were many complaints regarding the chart preparation time. The passengers coming from remote areas or suburbs of major cities to the Railway Station for taking long distance trains had to go back many times because of non-confirmation of the waitlisted ticket. Now, such passengers will get time to make alternative arrangements,' said the official quoted above. The official said that Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has directed the board to start implementing this move in phases to avoid disruption. Vaishnaw also reviewed the upgradation of the passenger reservation system, which is expected to enhance the ticket booking capacity by over 1.5 lakh ticket bookings per minute. This will be an increase of around five times from 32,000 tickets per minute in the current system. 'The ticket enquiry capacity will increase ten times from 4 lakh to over 40 lakh enquiry per minute time. Further, OTP-based authentication will be done for Tatkal bookings from the end of July, 2025. The authentication should be done using Aadhaar or any other verifiable Government ID available in the user's DigiLocker account,' said the official. Dheeraj Mishra is a Principal correspondent with The Indian Express, Business Bureau. He covers India's two key ministries- Ministry of Railways and Ministry of Road Transport & Highways. He frequently uses the Right to Information (RTI) Act for his stories, which have resulted in many impactful reports. ... Read More
Indian Express
41 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Scouting for 6 mid-air refuellers, IAF begins technical evaluation
The Indian Air Force (IAF) is in the process of conducting technical evaluation of mid-air refuellers that it has been seeking to procure since 2007 as a vital strategic asset, The Indian Express has learnt. According to sources, three to four firms have submitted bids for six mid-air refuellers that the IAF seeks to acquire. 'The technical evaluation stage is currently underway,' an official said, adding that the mid-air refuellers fielded by the three to four firms are under consideration. Once finalised, an Indian maintenance partner for these tankers will likely be sought. The IAF currently operates a fleet of six Ilyushin Il-78MKI tankers procured from Uzbekistan in 2003-04. In February 2024, the Defence Acquisition Council, headed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, cleared the procurement of another six mid-air refuellers. In 2023, The Indian Express reported that the IAF was looking to procure six 'pre-owned' aircraft which could be modified into tankers to meet its tanker requirement for 25-30 years. In March this year, the Ministry of Defence signed a contract with Metrea Management – it's a US-based private entity which specialises in air-to-air refuelling solutions – for wet leasing of one flight refuelling aircraft (FRA) for providing air-to-air refuelling training to pilots of IAF and Indian Navy. The Ministry said that Metrea would provide FRA (KC-135 aircraft) within six months – it would be the first FRA to be wet leased by IAF. It is not immediately clear whether all companies in the fray have pitched pre-owned aircraft for the contract. This is the IAF's third attempt since 2007 to buy the tankers. Two of its earlier tenders were cancelled due to pricing disputes. The idea behind opening the door for buying pre-owned aircraft as tankers was that many global companies would transition to advanced aircraft with new engines as they do away with their older aircraft models in the next few years, thus ensuring the availability of an adequate number of pre-owned aircraft in the market for modification into tankers. FRAs would be a vital strategic asset and force multiplier for the Armed Forces as these allow fighter jets to stay airborne longer. The need to induct the tankers is significant and stem from the IAF's long-term plans to induct a range of fighter jets capable of receiving fuel in air to add to its existing number of squadrons. Of the IAF's six existing II-78 tankers, procured in 2003-04, only three to four are serviceable at a time. Their maintenance and serviceability issues were highlighted in an August 2017 report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) that studied their operations from 2010 to 2016. The tankers were bought in 2003-2004 at Rs 132 crore per aircraft. The IAF also provides limited refuelling efforts to the Navy's MiG-29K fighter jets. In the past, the Airbus A330 multi-role tanker transport and the Ilyushin Il-78 had both fought to secure the contract. State-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) had also signed an agreement with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) to convert Boeing 767 passenger aircraft into tankers in India.
Indian Express
an hour ago
- Indian Express
Work underway for changes in two key laws, can open up civil nuclear sector
Legislative groundwork is underway for multiple amendments to two overarching laws governing the country's atomic energy sector. The changes will align them with legal provisions globally, address festering investor concerns and set the stage for opening up India's civil nuclear sector. The first is the easing of provisions in India's nuclear liability law. Called the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010 (CLNDA), it sought to create a mechanism for compensating victims from damages caused by a nuclear accident, and allocating liability and specifying procedures for compensation. But it was subsequently cited as an impediment by foreign equipment vendors such as US-based Westinghouse Electric and French nuclear company Framatome. This was on the grounds that this legislation channelised operators' liability to suppliers through a provision called the right of recourse of the operator — an operator of a nuclear plant would typically be a company such as the state-owned Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) while the suppliers could include foreign reactor manufacturers such as Westinghouse or Framatome, but also domestic equipment suppliers such as L&T or Walchandnagar Industries. Foreign vendors, both involved in the nuclear island and the conventional parts of an atomic power project, cited this specific provision of the operators' 'right of recourse' as a reason for worries about investing in India's nuclear sector due to fear of incurring future liability in the event of a nuclear accident. A set of around 11 legal amendments are now being worked out for the CLNDA, of which two are key. One is an amendment aimed at diluting a specific provision – Section 17 (b) of the CLNDA, which is seen to be at odds with similar nuclear liability legislations enacted worldwide. According to Section 17 of the CLNDA, the operator of the nuclear installation, after paying the compensation for nuclear damage, shall have the right to recourse where – (a) such right is expressly provided for in a contract in writing; (b) the nuclear incident has resulted as a consequence of an act of supplier or his employee, which includes supply of equipment or material with patent or latent defects or sub-standard services; and (c) the nuclear incident has resulted from the act of commission or omission of an individual done with the intent to cause nuclear damage. Provision (b) is the one that is a specific insertion in the Indian context and is cited as an impediment by foreign vendors, none of whom have invested in a single project in India since the legislation came into force. This is a cause for worry for Indian sub-vendors too, since the term 'supplier' is seen to be too broad in scope. 'There are multiple amendments (now) being worked out. The most important include bringing Section 17 on par with international benchmarks. The other is to clarify the definition of a supplier and address the concerns raised by domestic nuclear equipment manufacturers that sub-suppliers are also deemed to be included in the current definition, given that there is no distinction of the terms supplier in the current legislation,' a senior government official involved in the deliberations said. Smaller Indian vendors are learnt to have raised this as an issue. The official said that in any case, nuclear projects in India have to go through a vetting by the country's atomic regulator AERB, which is sufficiently empowered to ask for the right of recourse to be expressly provided for in a contract in writing while clearing all future contracts. There are also deliberations on capping the liability of equipment vendors, both in terms of limiting the monetary exposure to the original value of the contract and a possible time frame limitation on when this liability would apply. While this was being targeted for the upcoming monsoon session of Parliament, the official indicated that this might get spilled over to the next session given the tight timelines. The second major amendment in the works is aimed at enabling private companies to enter nuclear power plant operations in India, and could also set the stage for foreign companies to potentially take a minority equity exposure in upcoming nuclear power projects. Hitherto, atomic energy has been one of India's most closed sectors. The set of legal amendments are being seen as a reform push that could help leverage the commercial potential of the Indo-US civil nuclear deal, nearly two decades after it was inked. New Delhi is also keen to package this as part of a broader trade and investment outreach with Washington DC, which could eventually culminate with a trade pact that is currently under negotiation. Amendments to the second key legislation – the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 – are being initiated to enable private companies, and possibly even foreign players at a later stage, to enter nuclear generation as operators, which is currently restricted to only state-owned companies such as NPCIL or NTPC Ltd. The government has committed to getting both these legislations passed, including an explicit assurance to this effect made in the Union Budget presented earlier this year, even though the legislative route for at least one of the two proposed Bills would be an arduous one. The amendments in the CLNDA would effectively bring India's nuclear liability legislative framework in line with the provisions of the 1997 Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage (CSC), which sought to establish a worldwide liability regime. Under this, a country that is a party to either the 1963 Vienna Convention or the 1960 Paris Convention could automatically become a party to the CSC, while a country that was not a party to either of these conventions could also become a party to the CSC if its national law on nuclear liability were to be in compliance with the provision of the CSC and its annexures. India, not being a party to the Vienna or the Paris Conventions, signed the CSC on October 29, 2010 on the basis of its national law namely the CLND Act and ratified it on February 4, 2016, thereby becoming a 'State Party' to the CSC. The tweaks now proposed in the CLND Act would align it further with the CSC provisions, officials indicated. Also, on the definition of the 'supplier', and whether it is always assumed to be a foreign company, there is now a move to clarify this aspect contained in Rule 24 of the CLND Rules, which says that 'supplier' shall include a person who: (i) manufactures and supplies, either directly or through an agent, a system, equipment or component or builds a structure on the basis of functional specification; or (ii) provides build to print or detailed design specifications to a vendor for manufacturing a system, equipment or component or building a structure and is responsible to the operator for design and quality assurance; or (iii) provides quality assurance or design services. While the interpretation of this formulation is that 'the system designer and technology owner' is the supplier, there is lack of clarity on whether the terms supplier includes only say a reactor provider such as Westinghouse, or even a small electrical package provider that bagged a tender for Rs 1 crore for a nuclear project. This clarification of the term supplier would also be done in the proposed amendments, the official said. 'There is an economic necessity for these amendments to be done,' the official said, indicating the amendments are now likely to spill over beyond the monsoon session. The big challenge would be to build the political consensus to push the two major legislative amendments through. All this comes less than three months after the US Department of Energy (DoE) accorded an unprecedented regulatory clearance to Holtec International, based in Camden, New Jersey, that potentially sets it on course to leverage the commercial potential of the Indo-US civil nuclear deal. The March 26 approval from DoE effectively cleared Holtec International's application for specific authorisation with respect to the DoE's restrictive regulation that is referred to as '10CFR810'. This specific authorisation (SA IN2023-001) now conditionally permitted Holtec to transfer 'unclassified small modular reactor technology' (SMRs) to its regional subsidiary Holtec Asia, as well as Tata Consulting Engineers Ltd, and Larsen & Toubro Ltd in India. The issue of getting a specific '10CFR810' authorisation (Part 810 of Title 10, Code of Federal Regulations of the US Atomic Energy Act of 1954) had been a big regulatory hurdle for New Delhi. This is because the regulation, while giving American companies such as Holtec the ability to export equipment to countries such as India under some strict safeguards, explicitly barred them from manufacturing any nuclear equipment or performing any nuclear design work in India. This provision was a non-starter from New Delhi's perspective, which wanted to participate in manufacturing the SMRs and co-produce the nuclear components for its domestic needs. With Washington DC having eased out the regulatory hurdle in the form of the 810 authorisation, the ball is now in New Delhi's court to push through the two legislations at its end. Anil Sasi is National Business Editor with the Indian Express and writes on business and finance issues. He has worked with The Hindu Business Line and Business Standard and is an alumnus of Delhi University. ... Read More
