The nominee under a life insurance policy is entitled to receive payment without obtaining a succession certificate.

( 1 ) THIS is a revisional application at the instance of the plaintiff and is directed against an order dated May 5, 1981 passed in T. S. No. 674 of 1977 now pending in the 7th Bench of the City Civil Court at Calcutta.

( 2 ) THE petitioner instituted the suit principally for a declaration that she is entitled to the full value including bonus in respect of a life insurance policy. Facts so far as they are relevant for our present purposes are not disputed. Indrajit Sen, since deceased, was the holder of the life insurance policy and, the petitioner is the nominee of the policy holder. The policy holder having died on March 5, 1974, she lodged a claim for payment of the amount due under the policy. Initially the Life Insurance Corporation, the opposite party herein issued a discharge voucher to the petitioner for being duly filled in and returned to the Corporation. This was done but the Corporation thereafter agreed to pay only the paid up value of the policy on the ground that the assured had suppressed material information and made certain misslatements. The petitioner was therefore constrained to file the suit.

( 3 ) THE opposite party is contesting the suit by filing a written statement. Amongst various objections raised by the opposite party, one was to the effect that the relief claimed in the suit was barred under Section 214 of the Indian Succession Act. Issue No. 1 framed in the suit refers to this objection and this issue was heard as a preliminary issue and disposed of by the impugned order.

( 4 ) UPON a consideration of the relevant provisions of Section 214 of the Indian Succession Act and Section 39 of the Insurance Act, and the various authorities cited by the parties the learned Judge, held that Section 39 of the Insurance Act cannot override the provisions of Section 214 of the Succession Act and that therefore the petitioner was required to obtain a succession certificate in order to sustain her claim in the suit. The issue was thus disposed of.

( 5 ) DISSATISFIED with the decision aforesaid, the petitioner has preferred the present revisional application. Mr. Sen appearing in support of the application, contended that Section 214 of the Indian Succession Act can have no application in this case because the petitioner did not base her claim on succession but laid her claim in her capacity of nominee named in the policy. It is also contended by him that in view of the clear and specific provisions contained in Section 39 of the Insurance Act, production of a succession certificate cannot be insisted upon for sustaining such a claim or nomination. Mr. Banerjee in opposing the application on the other hand argued that there was a relationship of debtor and creditor between the person from whom the money is claimed and the deceased at the time of the lat-ter's death and as such Section 214 of the Succession Act would be applicable, and the Court would be incompetent to pass a decree for the recovery of the debt in the absence of a succession certificate.

( 6 ) FOR a proper appreciation of the rival contentions, it is necessary to refer to the provisions of the two sections in some details. Sub-section (1) of Section 39 of the Insurance Act provides that the holder of a policy of life insurance on his own life may when effecting the policy or at any time before the policy matures for payment, nominate the person or persons to whom the money secured by the policy shall be paid in the event of his death. Sub-section (2) provides that a nomination in order to be effectual shall, unless it is incorporated in the text of the policy itself, be made by an endorsement on the policy and duly communicated to the insurer and registered by him in the records relating to the policy. It also enables cancellation or successive charges in the nomination to be effected in the like manner and further provides that unless such change or cancellation is not duly notified, the insurer shall not be liable