BRANCH MANAGER LIC OF INDIA Vs. ZAREENA SULAIMAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a Revision Petition against the order dated 11th October, 1993 in A.P. No. 200 of 1993 on the file of the State Commission, Tamil Nadu at Madras.

(2.) The respondent's (complainant's) husband was a Professor in the Medical College, Tirunelveli. He had taken a Double Accident Benefit Policy with the Revision Petitioner Opposite Party Life Insurance Corporation of India, the policy amount being Rs. 50,000/and in the case of death in an accident, the amount payable being doubled viz. Rs. 1 lakh. The husband of the complainant met with a motor accident on 21st July, 1990 and he died as a consequence. The widow had to seek relief from the District Forum, Turunelveli to recover the policy amount of Rs. 50,000/-. Thereafter she filed a second complaint maintaining that it was only after receiving the amount of Rs. 50,000/under the policy that she came to know that the policy was also a Double Accident Benefit Policy and that she was entitled to recover a sum of Rs. 1 lakh. She therefore, filed a second complaint for the balance amount of Rs. 50,000/alongwith interest thereon.

(3.) The Revision Petitioner LIC resisted the claim of double accident benefit on the ground that after having filed one complaint and received the policy amount, the widow was not entitled to file another complaint for compensation in the light of the provisions of Order 2 Rule 2 of CPC or for that amount under the Double Accident Benefit Policy. Secondly it was maintained that the deceased was under the influence of liquor when the accident took place and this vitiated the Double Accident Benefit Policy. Clause 10 of the policy reads as under: