South Goa consumer court sees increase in insurance cases

MARGAO: Statistical data of consumer cases filed at the South Goa district consumer dispute redressal forum indicates a huge rise in the number of litigations against insurance companies in the past few years.
However, in North Goa less than 8% of the cases comprise insurance claims. Of the total 1200 cases pending before the forum in South Goa, some 476 cases are against insurance companies.There is an increase of almost 40% of insurance related litigations, which is second to that of cases in the housing sector.
"Claims pertaining to life insurance, health insurance, general insurance, insurance cover issued by private companies, mediclaim etc, comprise 40% of the total litigations," confirmed south Goa forum president Jagdish Prabhudessai. "Under the Consumer Protection Act, 1986, consumers can file a consumer complaint without any court fees. This had led to a marked increase in litigation against insurance companies. Prior to this Act, claimants had to file suits involving money in the civil court after payment of heavy court fees which were proportionate to the amount claimed," Prabhudessai said.
On a monthly basis, the forum receives some 20 to 23 litigations of various types of which 12 to 14 cases are against builders while those against insurance companies are between eight and ten cases, indicate court statistics. The third highest category of cases is against service providers like telecom, followed by banks and goods related litigations. In the case of the North Goa district forum, over 15% cases pertain to housing followed by 10% of the complaints being related to the telecom sector.
While in most cases execution proceedings are filed against offenders, in a considerable number of cases, the insurance company in question is exonerated as the complainant could not submit adequate documentary proof to substantiate the claim.
"Our experience is that most insurance companies respond to the directives of the forum when some stern action is taken against the offender. It appears that many times for obvious reasons, the office of the insurance company is not aware of the developments that take place and some companies are interested in delaying the payment," Prabhudessai said.
Expressing concern over this, he added, "The problems faced by litigants in such matters are that they face difficulties in filing the affidavits during evidence because they have to be signed before the notary." "This happens because of certain provisions of the Notary Act and the government must come forward with a suitable amendment to the existing laws to improve the position of suffering litigants," he opined.