The Madras High Court Bench in Madurai on Friday said it has every reason to believe that officials of public sector insurance companies often collude with claimants in motor accident cases and let them walk away with huge amount of money as compensation without placing true facts of the case before the Motor Accident Claims Tribunals.
Justice N. Kirubakaran made the observation while passing interim orders on two appeals preferred by United India Insurance Company challenging an award for Rs.6.67 lakh passed by a Tirunelveli Motor Accident Claims Tribunal in favour of two injured motorcyclists though the offending car did not have a valid insurance policy on the day of the incident. “These appeals would highlight as to how the public sector undertakings are functioning and how the officials are acting negligently and without any responsibility in a manner prejudicial to the interest of the insurance companies,” the judge said and summoned the Chairman-cum-Managing Director of the appellant company to curtail such practices.
The CMD was ordered to be present in the court on December 22 along with details of the quantum of money that had been paid by the insurance company towards third party claims in the last 10 years. The judge pointed out that the Tirunelveli tribunal had directed the insurance company to pay compensation only because it was not informed of the car not having been insured.
“If insurance companies are going to defend their cases in this fashion, it would cause loss to the companies which are already incurring heavy loss in respect of third party claims running to hundreds of crores of rupees,” the judge said
