CHENNAI: The Madras high court has declined to direct insurance companies to print the terms and conditions of their policies in vernacular languages, so people unable to read and write English and Hindi can understand the clauses governing claims.
The first bench of Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice M M Sundresh rejected a PIL by mason R Ayyanar saying, "It is not possible for this court to modify the terms of the policy... It is not the case of the petitioner that he had approached an insurance company for a copy of the insurance cover in a vernacular language as he did not understand the terms of the policy, which were in English."
According to advocate V S Suresh, Ayyanar, who had taken a life insurance policy from National Insurance Company, suffered injuries in a road accident caused by cattle. He was admitted to hospital and he incurred medical expenses of 1.5 lakh, with at least another 75,000 as possible future expenses.
His claims, however, were rejected by the insurance company on the grounds that he did not have personal accident cover. Noting that Ayyanar would have paid premium, which is a little more than the policy premium, for personal accident cover as well, Suresh said the insurance company had neither explained the terms of the policy to him nor given him the terms and conditions in writing in Tamil.
The PIL sought three things: one, it wanted the court to ask insurance companies to print their policy terms in bigger, readable format; two, they should be printed in vernacular languages, for the benefit of people unable to read and write in Hindi and English; and three, the company should be directed to reimburse his medical expenses.
Refusing to issue any orders in this regard, the bench said the petitioner was not in the habit of signing documents in languages he did not understand. Also, the policy does not cover medical treatment of the owner of a vehicle involved in an accident as it is not a mediclaim policy.
"The owner and driver are provided personal accident cover, only in case of death or disability," it said, dismissing the PIL.
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