Insurance Claim can’t be denied if a column in Form is left Blank
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The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) has said that leaving a column blank in an insurance proposal form cannot be treated as giving a false answer. Therefore, an insurance company cannot reject a claim on this ground.
The case was about Chhoti Devi, whose son had purchased a life insurance policy of ₹25 lakh in December 2015 with an annual premium of ₹10,900. Unfortunately, he passed away due to a heart attack in January 2017. When Devi filed a claim, Bharti AXA Life Insurance rejected it, saying that her son had hidden information about his existing policies.
Mr. Padam Soni (deceased)/son of Smt. Chhoti Devi, during his life time, took insurance policy through advisor of the Insurance Company for sum insured of Rs.25,00,000/- for the period from 28.12.2015 to 28.12.2035 for a term of 20 years by paying premium of Rs.10,900/-. Mr Padam Soni/insured died on 17.01.2017 by heart attack. Smt. Chhoti Devi mother of deceased Padam Soni filed claim before the Insurance Company. Vide letter dated 08.06.2017, the insurance company repudiated the claim. Hence, Smt. Chhoti Devi mother of the insured Padam Soni filed complaint before the State Commission.
The insurance company rejected the claim saying that the form was not completely filled. His family argued that the proposal form was filled digitally by the company’s agent in English, and the column asking about existing policies was simply left blank. They also pointed out that Bharti AXA itself had already issued three policies to him, so the company was aware of them.
After reviewing the case, NCDRC agreed with this reasoning. It said that leaving a blank column is not the same as giving false information. If the information was really important, the insurance company should have ensured that the column was filled before issuing the policy. The Commission also observed that since the form appeared to be filled by an agent or official of the company, the responsibility of completing it lay with them, not the insured person.
As a result, NCDRC overturned the earlier decision of the State Consumer Commission and ordered Bharti AXA to pay the full claim amount within 45 days, along with 9% interest per year from the date the claim was first filed.
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