An insured person can be denied a claim if he has concealed relevant facts such as existing ailments, the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has ruled.
The commission gave the ruling while setting aside a judgment of the Kerala consumer commission that had directed the LIC to pay Rs 50,000 as insurance claim to Shakuntala Devi, wife of a policy holder who died of tuberculosis in 2001.
The panel said there was credible evidence that the policy holder was suffering from tuberculosis and he had concealed it from the company, thus entitling the company to deny him the claim.
“Since, an insurance is a contract entered between the parties in utmost good faith, suppression of any material facts by the insuree, as was done in this case, entitled the insurance company to repudiate the claim,” the bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhan said.
