AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat State Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission has ordered an insurance company to pay insurance amount of Rs 1 lakh to a widow, who failed to claim the amount within stipulated time period. It said that in the male-dominated society, it is normal that a woman may not be knowing about her husband’s financial transactions.
Rajkot-resident Hetal Mehta had a case that she came to know it very late that her husband Manish Mehta was a shareholder of Nagrik Sahakari Bank Ltd and was covered with life insurance policy from The New India Assurance Co Ltd. Mehta died in 2014 and his widow claimed the insurance after 18 months. The insurer rejected her claim saying that she should have intimated her husband’s death within 30 days. The widow’s complaint before Rajkot’s consumer court was rejected merely on the ground of delay.
When she approached the state commission, judicial member M J Mehta said that the insurance company should have taken humanitarian view because women are not given enough importance in the patriarchal society and they remain ignorant about financial transactions by family members. The social condition is such that women are not informed about financial matters.
The commission also observed that it was natural that Mehta might not have informed his wife about his shareholding in the bank and about his insurance cover. She claimed insurance when she came to know about it and the 18-month delay could have been pardoned.
The commission ordered the company to pay Rs 1 lakh insurance amount to her and Rs 5,000 extra for legal expenditure that she had to incur.
