First the insurance regulator made it clear and now a Supreme Court ruling: insurers can’t reject an insurance claim on grounds of delay alone. On 4 October, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of a truck owner whose truck was stolen in 2010. The truck owner Om Prakash, unable to locate the truck, made a claim with his insurer Reliance General Insurance Co. Ltd after about 8 days of losing his vehicle. The insurer rejected the claim saying that a loss or theft needs to be reported immediately.
The matter went to the Supreme Court, which ruled that claims cannot be denied on grounds of delay alone. The court added: “It would not be fair and reasonable to reject genuine claims which had already been verified and found to be correct by the investigator. The condition regarding the delay shall not be a shelter to repudiate the insurance claims.”
