Insurance Can’t Be Denied Due To Delay In Filing; Ecommerce Portals Must Clear Sellers’ Dues In 2 Days: Supreme Court

Two landmark decisions have been announced, which will ultimately benefit the consumers, and would be a new benchmark for concerned companies.

While Supreme Court has ordered that insurance companies cannot deny a claim, simply because the filing was done a bit late, Reserve Bank of India has directed all ecommerce portals to clear the sellers’ due within 2 days of completion of transactions.

On one hand, this is a historic decision and order for the insurance sector in India, sellers on ecommerce portals would be now more relieved and assured of their payments.

Kudos to Supreme Court and RBI for taking this stand.

Insurance Claim Cannot Be Denied Due To Delay In Filing!

Often, insurance claims are denied, because the insurer couldn’t inform the insurance provider in time. Although it sounds very lame excuse to deny a claim, this has been a reality since quite some time.

Now, no more.

When Om Prakash from Bhiwari in Rajasthan lost his truck on 23 March 2010, he filed for insurance reimbursement on March 31st, and his claim was denied due to late filing.

He decided to approach National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC), and after 7 years of wait, he won.

A bench of justices R.K. Agrawal and S. Abdul Nazeer at Supreme Court has ordered the insurance provider to reimburse Om Prakash, because a genuine delay of 7 days is not a sufficient reason to deny the claim.

Reliance General Insurance Co. has been ordered to pay Rs 8.35 lakh to Om Prakash.

The Bench observed that any victim will first attempt to locate his stolen vehicle, rather than approach the insurance provider straight away. Pretty logical observation.

The Bench observed: “If the reason for delay in making a claim is satisfactorily explained, such a claim cannot be rejected on the ground of delay. It is also necessary to state here that it would not be fair and reasonable to reject genuine claims which had already been verified and found to be correct by the Investigator,”

Ecommerce Portals Must Pay Their Sellers In Two Days

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has ordered all ecommerce portals to clear the dues of sellers, within 2 days after the transactions has been completed.

After an online seller requested RBI to provide clarifications on this issue, RBI issued a circular, which gives two days of time to the ecommerce portals, to clear sellers’ due.

As of now, different ecommerce portals have different rules pertaining to sellers’ payments. Often, the date of dispatch is counted as the threshold, after which the payments are released.

Flipkart typically take a week to 12 days for setting sellers’ payments, while other ecommerce portals have a 15 day window.

However, as per RBI’s guidelines now, completion of a transaction would be now considered as the act of making the payment, and within 48 hours, the seller needs to be paid by the ecommerce portal.

We will keep you updated as we receive more updates.