District Consumer Protection Forum, Srinagar has directed New India Assurance Company Limited (NIACL) to pay Rs 40,000 compensation to a complainant who was insured with the company.
Mohammad Shafi Dar of Anantnag (Islamabad) had filed a complaint before the consumer forum in 2011 after NIACL had refused to indemnify him the costs of damaged stocks.
The consumer forum in its order directed the NIACL to pay Dar Rs 40,642 which includes Rs 25,642 assessed loss of damaged stocks, Rs 18,000 as compensation for causing him mental pain, agony and harassment, and Rs 7,000 as litigation charges.
The decision was given after the forum presided over by Muhammad Ashraf Malik, Principal District and Sessions Judge and Farah Deeba and Tariq Hussain Qadri as its members examined the evidence and witnesses, and found NIACL guilty of ‘deficiency of service’.
In its detailed order, Dar’s insured stocks-in-trade suffered extensive damage due to fire that broke out in the shop of the complainant.
Dar after completing all formalities submitted an indemnity claim before the company.
However, the complainant was not satisfied with the amount settled by surveyor at Rs 14,359 against losses he had suffered.
Aggrieved with the quantum of loss assessed, he lodged a protest with NIACL impressing upon it that given the magnitude and dimension of the damage, loss caused to the complainant would be quantified at Rs 5 lakh.
The complainant had alleged that in spite all this NIACL was heedless and without alleviating the grievance, pushing complainant only in the state of extreme physical and mental agony as also the financial loss.
The forum not only directed the opposition party to pay the assessed loss along with the interest but also directed for compensation and litigation charges as well.