LAHORE: A widow of a policyholder has got secured life insurance claim after opting not to conduct post-mortem examination of her deceased husband.
Her deceased husband had purchased an insurance policy of Rs500,000 on the basis of yearly premium and chose her as his nominee.
Her husband died in a road accident before the maturity of the policy. A report in this regard was lodged with the concerned police station and his legal heirs got recorded her statement before the police that she did not want to conduct the post-mortem examination. After completion of necessary formalities, the police handed over the dead body of the deceased to legal heirs who buried him in the village.
The widow approached the relevant forum for recovery of insurance claim on the plea that she has failed to prove the cause of death of her husband in the shape of a post-mortem examination report.
However, since the insurance company had never challenged the validity of the death certificate, entry in the death register of the concerned union council and the report lodged at the relevant police station where the accident took place.
The widow maintained that despite she had avoided conducting post-mortem examination of the dead body of her deceased husband, however, if the insurance company deemed it to be necessary, it should have been done by itself in order to protect its rights.
She continued that she had lodged the insurance claim with the company by complying with all procedural requirements. It was an insurance company that failed to make due payment as prescribed under the law.
The relevant forum maintained that the company has failed to point any illegally or infirmity, misreading and non-reading if evidence is on the record.
It may be noted that the Insurance Ordinance stipulates that where payment on a policy issued by an insurer becomes due and the person entitled thereto has complied with all the requirements, the insurer shall, if he fails to make payment within a period of ninety days would have also to pay liquidated damages.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024