IMPORTANT POINT
Mere presence of alcohol, even usually prescribed limits, is not a conclusive proof of intoxication.

Dr. S.M. Kantikar, Member —The Petitioner has filed the present Revision Petition under Section 21(b) of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 being aggrieved by theORDER dated 06.02.2013, passed by the State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (in short, ‘State Commission’), whereby the State Commission allowed the First Appeal No. 24/12 & 25/12 which was filed against theORDER of the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum (in short, ‘District Forum’).

2. The complainant, Smt Sheela, the wife of deceased Kalleppilly Sasidharan along with her two sons and a daughter, filed a complaint before the District Forum alleging deficiency in service by the United India Insurance Company, Thrissur, the OP/Petitioner, who had repudiated the death claim under the Personal Accident Policy. The claim was repudiated contending that the deceased committed suicide, it was not accidental and that he was under influence of alcohol i.e. intoxicated, at the time of his death, on 17.01.2014.

3. The District Forum dismissed the complaint, but the State Commission allowed the appeal and directed the OPs to pay Rs.5,00,000/- being the policy claim, Rs. 2,500/- under clause-1(g) of the policy, Rs. 10,000/- under clause-(h) (b) of policy by 3rd and 4th Opposite Parties and Rs. 25,000/- as compensation and all the benefits under the policy.

4. Aggrieved by theORDER of State Commission, the petitioner preferred this Revision Petition.

5. We have heard counsel for the both the parties. The counsel for the complainants vehemently argued that, it was an accidental death, the deceased has not consumed alcohol. The Counsel for the OP centered his argument on the Chemical analysis repot from Chemical Examiners’ Laboratory, Ernakulum(Annexure P-11).He further submitted that, as per MV Act, Blood alcohol Concentration(BAC) more than 30 mg/100 ml of blood is intoxication. The BAC of deceased was very high, at 220 mg/100 ml of blood; hence, he was severely intoxicated. The counsel for OP prayed for opinion from AIIMS, if necessary. Hence, the repudiation was correct and prayed to set aside theORDER of state commission.

6. We have perused the evidence on record, the Chemical analysis report, Post Mortem report, Personal Accident Policy conditions and the investigation report issued by Mr. George Thattil (Insurance Investigator). The main crux in this case is, “whether, the cause of death is due to Drowning or by Alcohol Intoxication?.” The post mortem report (Annexure 8) clearly mentions that the final opinion as “ Post mortem findings were consistent with death due to drowning” It is also surprising to note that, under the heading of other laboratory findings it was written as “The sample of blood and viscera contained 220 mg/ml of ethyl alcohol.” Further, we have noted several fatal errors in the Post mortem reports, like, name and age of deceased was mentioned as “Sasi, 44 years” instead of “Shashidharan, 42 years”. Also, same mistakes carried further, while sampling of all the specimens during postmortem. The final Post Mortem Certificate issued by Dr.Pleasnt Sunny, has also erroneously mentioned about the concentration of alcohol as “220 mg per ml”, instead of “220 mg per 100 ml of blood”. Thus, it is very pertinent to note that the Head of Forensic Department, in this regard, issued two letters of corrections to the Sub Divisional Magistrate, Thrissur.

7. We have given thoughtful consideration after referring to the medical texts and literature on Alcohol Intoxication. Our views are that,

* the Ethyl alcohol was qualitatively detected in liver/kidney and blood samples, but it is not clear what the report is with regard to the stomach and intestine. The result appears to have been struck out with a pen.

*In fact, the autopsy is inconclusive about the cause of death because of absence of any significant/specific lesion on gross inspection, either internally or externally, except for “foul smell” in the stomach contents. Incidentally, alcohol does not produ