The high court on Monday directed a bank to pay Rs 1 lakh to the widow of a customer as accidental death insurance after it had refused to pay up on the ground that the claim had been submitted over 90 days after the death.
The private bank had promised a sum of Rs 1 lakh in case of accidental death, at the time of issuing a debit card to Gautam Basu, the husband of the petitioner.
Gautam died in a road accident in May 2017 at age 52. When his widow Banani, 47, submitted the insurance claim, she was allegedly told by the bank that the insurance had lapsed since she had failed to claim the amount within 90 days of her husband’s death.
Banani had submitted the claim 99 days after her husband’s death, according to the bank. Her lawyer, however, said the claim was submitted 91 days after the death.
Banani filed a petition in the high court, saying bank officials had told her that it was mandatory for customers to claim the insurance amount for accidental death within 90 days and that she was nine days late.
Justice Sabyasachi Bhattacharya, in his order, said the bank’s argument for declining to pay the amount was “bad” in law.
“If 90 days is the compulsory time limit for a party to claim the insurance, the bank should mention this in the agreement. But in case of the accused private bank, it is not mentioned that it is mandatory to submit the application for the claim within 90 days of the death of the customer,” the judge stated in his order.
Moving the petition on behalf of Banani, advocate Smarajit Roy Chowdhury submitted that her husband was an employee of an oil company at Mourigram in Howrah. The bank had offered him a priority debit card and an insurance amount of Rs 1 lakh to his kin for accidental death.
When Banani first contacted the bank for disbursement of the insured amount, she was refused.
“My client reported the matter to the Reserve Bank of India after the bank told her the covered amount would not be released as she had failed to claim it within 90 days of her husband’s death,” the lawyer told the court.
The lawyer also alleged that it had become the practice of many private banks to lure customers with insurance offers to sell debit and credit cards. But the promises were often not kept on flimsy grounds, he said.
Opposing the prayer, Sayani Roy Chowdhury, counsel appearing for the accused private bank, said: “It is necessary for the parties to make the claims within 90 days of death of the policy-holders. In the present case, the widow of the customer had applied for the amount 99 days after her husband’s death.”
But Banani’s lawyer showed the court that his client had applied for the insured amount 91 days after her husband’s death. “The bank should have considered a day’s delay of a widow, who with her two minor children had been passing through a tough time after the sudden death of her husband.”
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