Now Reading: Telangana panel orders Tata AIA to pay Rs 1 crore death claim
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Telangana panel orders Tata AIA to pay Rs 1 crore death claim
The Telangana State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has directed Tata AIA Life Insurance to honour a Rs 1 crore death claim it had rejected for alleged non-disclosure. The policyholder, Ramdas Vislavath, a…
The Story in Brief
The Telangana State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has directed Tata AIA Life Insurance to honour a Rs 1 crore death claim it had rejected for alleged non-disclosure. The policyholder, Ramdas Vislavath, a retired Central Excise Superintendent, died of Covid-19 in May 2021, two years after buying a Samporna Raksha policy. The insurer argued Vislavath had not disclosed that ICICI Prudential had postponed his earlier Rs 1 crore proposal on medical grounds.
The Commission dismissed the insurer's appeal, holding that Tata AIA failed to prove Vislavath knowingly concealed the information. It noted the insurer had conducted its own medical check before issuing the policy. The District Commission's order stands: Tata AIA must pay the claim with 9% annual interest from January 2022, Rs 50,000 compensation, and Rs 10,000 legal costs.
The Indian Opinion
The usual narrative of 'insurers are heartless' collides with the equally lazy 'policyholders always hide things'. Here, the commission cut through both. Tata AIA repudiated a Rs 1 crore claim based on a prior postponement it could not prove the insured knew about, while itself clearing him after a medical exam. The lesson is procedural. When a company takes your premium after its own health check, it cannot later cry foul using records you may never have seen. The real test: how many similar cases will this force insurers to settle rather than litigate?
Sources (2): livemint.com, livemint.com (2)
This story was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above.
Updated: this story now draws on 2 sources.
