Insurance – Insurance claim – Entitlement – Valid National permit – Non-depositing of authorization fee – Truck of the appellant, insured with the respondent-insurance company, caught fire during the insurance period – Direction by the State Commission to the respondent to settle the claim on non-standard basis – However, the National Commission held that the insurance claim cannot be allowed in the absence of any valid permit and set aside the order passed by the State Commission – Correctness:
Held: National permit was valid – Authorization fee was required to be paid only when the truck was moving out of State of Bihar as it was registered in the State of Bihar and the truck caught fire in the State of Bihar itself, thus, the respondent company could not have repudiated the claim on such a frivolous ground – Permit was issued by the competent authority in Bihar, thus, no requirement of paying authorization fee when the truck was being used in the State of Bihar – As per the terms and conditions of the National Permit, authorization fee was required to be paid only when the truck was moving out of State of Bihar – Thus, the apellant entitled for the insurance claim as held by the State Commission – Order passed by the National Commission set aside – Appellant not only entitled for the entire claim amount right from the date it became due but also entitled for interest @ 9% per annum from the date of the complaint made before State Commission till the date, the amount is actually paid to him. [Paras 8, 9]
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Headnotes prepared by: Nidhi Jain. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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