The insurer cannot repudiate a life insurance policy based on an inaccurate statement in the personal statement unless the statement was material and fraudulently made by the policy-holder, and the insurer has properly explained the implications of the basis clause and the questions in the personal statement to the insured.

CHINNAPPA REDDY, J.

( 1 ) KESHAVADAS Jamanadas died of jaundice on 4-11-1966. The Life Insurance Corporation of India seeks to repudiate a policy of insurance which Keshavdas Jamanadas had taken out about one and a half years earlier on the ground that in his personal statement he had stated that he had not suffered from any illness and had not consulted any medical practitioner within the last five years when in fact he had once suffered from indigestion for a few days and had taken a cihoornam from an Ayurvedic practitioner, The jaundice of which Keshavdas Jamanadas died had not the remotest connection with the indigestion from which he suffered for a few days several months earlier. But the Life Insurance Corporation wants to profit by the inaccuracy and seeks to deprive the assured s dependents of the amount of insurance. I consider the attitude of the Life Insurance Corporation highly improper and grotesquely unfair. But the learned counsel for the Life Insurance Corporation urges that such is the rigour of the law and that the Corporation is within its rights in repudiating the policy. Let me examine whether the law is indeed so harsh and the dependents of Keshavadas Jamanadas so helpless.

( 2 ) KESHAVADAS Jamanadas submitted a proposal for insurance of his life on 13-1-1965 for a sum of Rs. 5,000. 00. He signed a declaration in a printed form to the effect that the statements of answers given in the proposal were true in every particular and that those statements and the declaration together with the further statements to be made before the Medical Examiner and the declaration relative thereto shall be the basis of the contract of assurance and that if there was any untrue averment, the contract shall be absolutely null and void. On 18-2-1966 he made a personal statement before the Medical Examiner appointed by the Life Insurance Corporation of India and was then examined by the Medical Examiner. The personal statement was in the form of printed questions and written answers. The answers were not written by the assured but were written by one Sawarikar, the Development Officer of the Life Insurance Corporation of India employed in its Secunderabad Branch. Keshavadas Jamanadas, however, signed a printed declaration at the foot of the personal statement that the answers were given by him after fully understanding the questions, that they were true in every particular, that he had not withheld any information and that he agreed that the declaration together with the proposal for assurance shall be the basis of the contract of assurance. The Medical Examiner has also signed the personal statement certifying that the proposer had signed in his presence after admitting that all the answers had been correctly recorded. The certificate is in a printed form. Sri Sawarikar has also signed a declaration in a printed form at the foot of the personal statement that he bad explained the questions to the proposer who had signed after satisfying himself that the answers had been correctly recorded. The alleged false particulars in the personal statement are these. To question 4 (d)"have you consulted a medical practitioner within the last five years?"the answer was "no". To question 6 (d)"have you ever suffered from any of the following ailments, Sprue, Jaundice, anaemia, piles, dysentery, cholera abdominal pain, appendicitis, or any other disease of the stomach, liver, spleen, or intestines?"the answer was No. To question 6 (k) "any other illness within the last five years requiring treatment for more than a week?" the answer was No. According to the evidence it transpires that Keshavdas Jamnadas suffered from indigestion between 14-10-1965 t and 28-10-1965 and had taken a choomam from Dr. A. Ananthaswamy, an Ayurvedic practitioner. The Medical Examiner who examined Keshavdas Jamnadas after the personal statement was recorded submitted a confidential report to the Life Insurance Corporation of India, again in a printed form, wherein t

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