SC raps insurance cos for filing needless appeals

The Supreme Court has come down hard on insurance companies for filing needless appeals in workmen's compensation cases on technical grounds even when they do not dispute their liability under insurance contracts -- a practice, it said, only delayed justice for injured workers or their families.

- Utkarsh Anand

A bench of justices Manoj Misra and N Kotiswar Singh imposed a 50,000 cost on The New India Assurance Company Ltd, calling its appeal before the Calcutta high court “unnecessary” and holding that it caused undue delay in the payment of compensation to a driver who had suffered injuries while on duty.

“We must express our anguish at the practice of insurance companies unnecessarily filing appeals by raising technical pleas more so when they do not deny their ultimate liability under the contract of insurance,” said the bench, directing that the penalty be paid to the claimant within a month.

The court restored the award passed by the Commissioner for Workmen's Compensation (West Bengal), who had directed the insurer to pay €2.58 lakh with 12% annual interest to the injured worker. The Calcutta high court had modified that order in 2015, shifting the liability to the employer with a right of reimbursement from the insurance company.