Consumer forum dismisses insurance claim filed after six years

A consumer forum here has dismissed a man's plea seeking insurance payment on his son's death in a road accident in 2006, saying he failed to give "sufficient reasons" for filing the claim six years after the incident.
The North-East Delhi District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, presided by N K Goel, dismissed the plea of Delhi resident Digamber Jain, who had sought insurance cover amount of his son from a Union Bank of India's branch here six years after his death.
"... We hold that the complainant (Jain) has failed to prove that there exist sufficient reasons for not filing complaint within stipulated period. Therefore, we dismiss the application for condonation of delay," the forum, also comprising its members Asha Kumar and Nishat Ahmad Alvi, said.

The forum said the delay of six years in seeking the claim was a "very long period" and Jain must give some convincing reason for it.
"This may be true that the complainant must have forgotten to think about filing of the claim before the Bank for some time after the sudden and tragic death of his son in a road accident. However, six years is a very long period.
"In order to justify delay of six years, he must have assigned some convincible reason and in case he had got some medical treatment he should have filed medical prescription slips/medical report on the file," the forum said.

According to Jain, his son was having a savings account with the bank with personal accident insurance of Rs two lakh on his ATM card provided by the bank but no policy was issued by the bank.
Jain's son died on August 2, 2006 in a road accident but he intimated the bank only in April 2012 regarding the claim amount.
The claim, however, was rejected by the bank on the ground that intimation was to be given within three months from date of the incident.