How a misaligned computer print out cost LIC dearly

How a misaligned computer print out cost LIC dearly

The document mentioned the maturity amount as Rs. 62.50 lakh and believing this to be the case, Subramanian had paid monthly premium of Rs 31,153 for eight long years.

Published: 02nd June 2020 10:23 PM | Last Updated: 02nd June 2020 10:23 PM |

By Siva Sekaran

Express News Service

CHENNAI: A misaligned computer print out of a policy document has cost the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India a few lakhs.

The curious case disposed by the Madras High Court on Monday revolved around a policy document issued in 2010 by the Royapettah branch of LIC to a Chennai resident P Subramanian.

The document mentioned the maturity amount as Rs. 62.50 lakh and believing this to be the case, Subramanian had paid monthly premium of Rs 31,153 for eight long years.

Much to his shock, at the fag end of the policy, in July 2018, the LIC informed him that the maturity amount mentioned in the document is a clerical error. He was told that the actual maturity amount is only Rs 14.92 lakh. This was when Subramanian had paid R s31.77 lakh over eight years by way of monthly premiums.

Aggrieved by this, Subramanian moved the Madras high court seeking Rs 62.50 lakh from the LIC. His counsel Sundar Mohan argued that as his client had remitted the premiums regularly every month without any default for eight long years, he was entitled to receive the "agreed" maturity amount of Rs. 62.50 lakh in full.

The counsel of the LIC argued that Rs 62.50 lakh was actually the "Death Benefit Sum Assured", where as the maturity amount at the end of the policy is only Rs 14.92 lakh. It was argued that "due to  misalignment of the computer printer while filling up the blank columns in the Policy Schedule the numbers were not properly entered in the relevant columns". The LIC's counsel argued that the column for `Maturity Sum Assured’ was in fact left blank in the policy document.

Justice P D Audikesavalu, in his order on Monday, observed that the case was "peculiar situation" and that both the parties have failed to act with diligence. The judge pointed out that many columns in the  document were left blank. The petitioner claimed that the maturity amount was Rs 62.50 lakh, which was one of the two figures entered in the Policy Schedule. The LIC asserted that it should be only Rs 14.92  lakh.

The judge said that neither of the parties produced any other material other than the policy document to substantiate their conflicting versions. 

The court also observed that it cannot also be lost sight of the fact that the LIC has sought correction in the value of the maturity amount only after eight long years. By this time the petitioner had made periodical payments of premium of Rs 31,153 per month aggregating to a substantial sum of Rs 31.77 lakh without even raising any query about the blanks in some of the columns in the Policy Schedule.

The court observed that "LIC had received the unintended monetary advantage at the cost of divesting Subramanian of the use of his legitimate money during that period."

Hence, to compensate, the court directed LIC to repay Rs 31.77 lakh Subramanian had paid as installments over last eight years and also annual interest of Rs 7.5 per cent from the respective dates on which each of the installments had been remitted.