Judgment

P.K. Balasubramanyan, J.—The National Insurance Company, the respondent in a claim before the State Commission under the Jammu & Kashmir Consumer Protection Act, is the appellant before us. M/s Harjeet Rice Mills, the respondent herein, had insured its stocks with the appellant for the period September 1991 to September 1992. The respondent herein approached the State Consumer Commission with a claim that there was an acciden­tal fire in its godown in the night intervening the first and second January 1992; that the goods stocked were lost in the fire; that the surveyor appointed had estimated the loss at Rs. 8,96,500/- on finding that the loss was due to a fire caused by a short circuit; that the appellant had repudiated the claim unjustly; that there was thus deficiency in service and that the respondent was entitled to a sum of Rs. 9 lakhs as the value of the goods lost, to a sum of Rs. 1 lakh as damages for mental agony and for interest at 24% per annum on the entire amount, from the date of the incident of fire. The appellant resisted the claim by contending, inter alia, that the State Commis­sion had no jurisdiction to entertain the claim; that on a further investigat