KARUVATTA SERVICE COOPERATIVE BANK LIMITED Vs. INSURANCE OMBUDSMAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner is a Primary Credit Co-operative Society governed by the Kerala Co-operative Societies Act and the Rules framed thereunder. The petitioner is challenging Ext.P9 Award dtd. 7/7/2023 of the Insurance Ombudsman.

(2.) The petitioner-Society had insured itself under Burglary Standard Policy of the 2nd respondent- Insurance Company as per Ext.P1. On the intervening night between 2/9/2020 and 3/9/2020, the accused in CC No.175/2021 broke open the office of the Society, cut open the strong room and committed theft of 4,500 grams of pawned gold articles and of Rs.4,50,000.00 cash. The installed CC TV cameras and three Desktop Computers were also stolen by the accused. The petitioner computes the worth of the stolen articles as Rs.2.5 Crores.

(3.) The jurisdictional police registered Crime No.1084/2020 at Haripad Police Station on 3/9/2020. The police arrested the accused and recovered 3690.39 grams of gold articles and Rs.3,50,000.00 cash. The recovered assets are now thondi materials in CC No.175/2021. The petitioner made an insurance claim for Rs.73,07,661.00 as per Ext.P2. A Surveyor appointed by the Insurance Company made inspections. The Surveyor issued Ext.P3 loss assessment report dtd. 19/6/2021 assessing the total loss as Rs.59,85,161.00. The Insurance Company, however, did not release the said amount. The petitioner therefore made a complaint on 4/3/2022 to the 4th respondent-Co-operative Insurance Society Limited. The 4th respondent, as per Ext.P4 communication, informed that the claim amount will be received by the petitioner before the expiry of March, 2022.