JKSCDRC asks NIC to pay Rs 12.5 lackh as compensation

Srinagar, Sep 22 (UNI) Jammu and Kashmir State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (CDRC) has directed National Insurance Company (NIC) to pay Rs 12.5 lackh as compensation in property damage case.

The CDRC in its 21 page judgments on three claims, filed in 1999, also directed the NIC to pay the amount alongwith the interest at the rate of six per cent per annum starting from the date of filing the claim till the final payment is made.

Besides, the Commission also awarded a composite amount of Rs one lac as damage in all the three claims.

The judgment said late Sheikh Mohammad Sadiq, then Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) and father of complainants, Sheikh Parvez Ahmad and Sheikh Iqbal of Soura, had filed a petition before the commission that they acquired large properties in the form of residential houses, industrial and shopping complexes.

Sadiq, being a close relative of the then Chief Minister of the state, Farooq Abdullah was assassinated in 1991, forcing his other family members to migrate from Kashmir valley leaving behind the entire property.

The judgment said in 1995 the complainants had received information that their industrial and shopping complex situated in Soura and a shop at Dalgate were ransacked and damaged by unidentified miscreants.

Since the entire property was insured with NIC, they raised their claim for a total amount of Rs 25.20 lackh on May 17,1999. However, despite appointing a surveyor to conduct the spot inspection by the NIC, nothing happened from 1996 to 1999 even though the complainants filed a number of application for early reimbursement of the amount.

The judgments said the NIC had taken to number of courses to stop the payment of the claims and alleged that all the claims made by the complainants were fraudulent and they want to enrich themselves from the public money of the insurance company.

The commission after hearing the counsel from both sides, directed the NIC to pay Rs 12.5 lackh instead of Rs 25.2 as claimed by the complainants.

UNI