Insurers can deny claims if drinking habit hidden: SC

HIDING CHRONIC ALCOHOLISM CAN LEAD TO INSURER'S DENYING CLAIMS AS IT IS DIFFERENT FROM CASUAL DRINKING SC SAID IN ITS RULING

- Utkarsh Anand

NEW DELHI: The claims of people who drink alcohol but keep it a secret from their insurance companies could be rejected, even if the death was not directly caused by alcoholism, the Supreme Court has ruled.

The apex court added that insurers are within their rights to repudiate claims if policyholders conceal their drinking habit while buying health insurance.

A bench of justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta upheld the Life Insurance Corporation's (LIC) decision to deny a claim under its Jeevan Arogya policy to a man who took the policy in 2013 but failed to disclose that he was a chronic alcoholic.

Less than a year later, he was hospitalized in Jhajjar, Haryana for severe abdominal pain, remained under treatment for nearly a month, and ultimately died of a cardiac arrest.