HYDERABAD: Dhereddy Arundhati, a 35-year-old widow from Chandrayangutta finally got justice after a wait of four years after her husband’s death, from the Hyderabad Consumer redressal district forum over a complainant she had filed in 2015 against Royal Sundaram Alliance Insurance.
Arundhati had stated that her husband D. Janardhan Reddy had insured his vehicle with Royal Sundaram under a policy which was valid from September 2013 to 2014.
Janardhan paid a premium of Rs 20,000 which included personal accident cover. On November 11, 2013, he met with an accident in Khammam district and succumbed to fatal injuries. The vehicle was shifted from the spot to L&T office compound before the accident was reported to the insurance company. It settled the vehicle damage claim but not the personal accident claim of Rs 2 lakh.
The complainant claimed that despite many oral and written representations, the company did not reply or pay the amount, knowing that her husband was the sole breadwinner of the family.
On its part, the insurance company conveyed that documents required for personal accident claim were different from the ones the claimant had submitted, and that it was willing to pay the amount if the complainant could provide the relevant ones. Arundhathi, however, stated that she was made to run around in the company’s various departments, whose staff too was uncooperative. She said she was not even given a claim form despite repeated requests.
Granting the woman the claim amount, the court observed that “the hapless widow may not be well-versed with the procedures required for claiming benefits. The company should have been more diligent and pro-active in helping the complainant.”
The judgment stated that the complainant was made to run around for two years after the death of her husband under one pretext or the other as the accident occurred in 2013.
