BINDHU KUMARI Vs. RAMAYYAN NADAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The plaintiffs, who had failed in both the Courts below in part, has preferred the above appeal for disallowed portion. The suit was filed for declaration that the plaintiffs are legal heirs of the deceased policy holder and for consequential injunction against the respondents 3 and 4 from paying any amount to the first defendant alone, who is the nominee appointed by the policy holder.

(2.) The plaintiffs are the wife and daughter respectively of one deceased Radhakrishnan. The first and second defendants are father-in-law and mother-in-law of the first plaintiff. The husband of the first plaintiff, while working as Technician in O.N.G.C. Limited, Pondicherry, had taken an insurance policy with the L.I.C. of India on 24.09.1991, in which he had mentioned the name of his father as nominee. The sum assured was Rs.1 lakh. The marriage between the first plaintiff and the deceased was solemnized on 06.09.1999 and the second plaintiff was born out of the said wedlock on 31.07.2003. While so, the husband of the first plaintiff died in harness on 13.03.2003. When the first plaintiff applied for settlement claim, the third and fourth defendants rejected her claim stating that her husband had nominated only the first defendant as nominee and as per Section 39 of the Insurance Act, the Corporation has to settle the amount only to the nominees. The first defendant, who was authorised to receive the money, denied the plaintiffs share as legal heirs, the first defendant had suspicion over the involvement of the first plaintiff in the death of his son. Hence, the Suit.

(3.) Before the trial Court, on the side of the plaintiff, P.W.1 was examined and Exs.A.1 to A.7 were marked, and on the side of the defendants, DW.1 was examined and no documentary evidence was marked. Both the Courts below have concurrently held that the first plaintiff is not entitled to get share as she has subsequently married another person and living with him, and that the second plaintiff, as the legal heir of the deceased, is entitled to equal share along with the first defendant.