Insurance regulator and Insurer penalized by Consumer Forum

A consumer redressal forum has, pulled up IRDA, asking the regulator and an insurance firm to pay compensation to a senior citizen for not taking appropriate action on a complaint he had filed. The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, Chennai (South), summoned the IRDA chairman in person in the case pertaining to a ‘fraudulent’ insurance policy that a branch manager of Max Life Insurance Company Ltd, in collusion with an agent, issued to Guindy resident Jagannathan, a retired bank manager. Jagannathan informed the forum that he had in February 2009 paid Rs 20,000 to purchase a unit-linked insurance policy (ULIP) from the firm. Max Life Insurance, under IRDA guidelines, should have sent him a copy of the original policy document within 15 days of receiving the premium but the firm did not do so for nearly two years, Jagannathan said. Nonetheless, he said, he paid annual premium of Rs 20,000 each in 2010 and 2011. In February 2012, Jagannathan received an email from the firm stating the policy had lapsed for defaulting on premium payments for two years. He approached the firm’s office in Chennai, head office in New Delhi as well as IRDA, but got no refund. Later he approached the consumer forum. The insurance firm responded that it dispatched the policy after receiving the premium. But with no proof for this, the forum rejected this claim. The forum ordered the firm and IRDA to pay Jagannathan Rs 44,554.51.