Consumer court rules in favour of accident victim

A Delhi court has ruled that if an insured dies due to heart attack during an accident, then insurance cover can be claimed.

The Delhi State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission presided by Justice J.D. Kapoor ruled: "If any person meets with an accident, including vehicular accident, and if death occurs due to myocardial infarction consequent to coronary artery disease, precipitated during vehicular accident, it amounts to accidental death and entitles the insured for accidental claim benefit."

The court's intervention came while dealing with a case of Jagdish Lal, who was covered under the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) policy for a sum of Rs.50,000.

As per the policy, the insured was entitled for double the sum assured and not exceeding Rs.500,000 in case of death due to accident.

The insured met with a vehicular accident on Jan 10, 2004, and died.

LIC took the plea that the accident was caused due to his own negligence as during the accident, he first hit a rickshaw and then hit a pole.

Rejecting this plea, Justice Kapoor said that it is an accident and asked the insurance company to compensate Rs.50,000 as the insurance cover along with Rs.10,000 for mental agony and harassment and Rs.3,000 as cost of litigation.

Explaining the meaning of accident, Justice Kapoor said that "accident means an unfortunate event, especially one causing physical harm or damage, brought about unfortunately".

"Even if we accept the version of the rickshaw puller, which even otherwise neither is fortified by any further evidence as any person who suffers injury due to some vehicular accident will lodge a report with the police and such a report cannot take the accuser from outside the ambit of accident."

Last updated on Dec 1^st, 2008 at 19:01 pm IST--IANS