ORDER

Mr. Justice D.K. Jain, President Member - It is pointed out by the Registry that these Revision Petitions in this batch are barred by limitation. The period of delay in filing of these Revision Petitions ranges between 7 days to 1554 days. Since we propose to decide the issue raised in the connected Revision Petitions on merit, we condone the delay in filing of these Revision Petitions subject to the Petitioner Insurance Company depositing a consolidated sum of 1,00,000/- in the Consumer Welfare Fund by way of demand draft drawn in favour of PAO, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, New Delhi and a further sum of 50,000/- in the Consumer Legal Aid Account.

2. Challenge in this batch of 67 Revision Petitions, preferred by New India Assurance Company Ltd. (for short, "the Insurance Company") under Section 21(b) of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 (for short "the Act"), is to the various orders passed by the West Bengal State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission at Kolkata (for short "the State Commission") in its appeals filed against the orders passed by the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, Kolkata, Unit II (for short, "the District Forum"). By the impugned orders, the State Commission, while affirming the findings recorded by the District Forum except in R.P.No.16/15 wherein complaint was dismissed, has directed the Insurance Company to pay to the Complainants/nominees of the insured, the amounts assured under the Group Insurance policy styled as 'Janata Personal Accident Insurance Policy' (for short, "the JPA").

3. Since, except for the incidents, giving rise to the claims under the policy, the question of law and the grounds on which the claims had not been processed by the Insurance Company in all the cases are similar, these are being disposed of by this common order. However, as agreed to by Learned Counsel for the parties, Revision Petition No. 3095/2010 is being treated as the lead case and the facts of that case are taken as illustrative.

4. One Golden Trust Financial Services (for short, "GTFS"), a partnership firm, was engaged in the business of mobilising investable funds from the General Public for the Schemes floated by the Unit Trust of India, several Finance Companies and Corporate houses. To increase its business, GTFS offered, as an incentive, to its employees, friends and investors, the benefits under the JPA policy under two heads, viz. mediclaim insurance and Janata Personal Accident Insurance. Two Memorandums of Understanding (for short "the MOU") were executed between GTFS and the Insurance Company on 29.07.1998 and 30.12.1998 respectively for mediclaim and personal accident.

5. As per the MOU, all terms and conditions, including exclusions, as enumerated under the Master Group Janata Personal Accident Insurance Scheme, were to be applicable to the policies to be issued under the JPA, which was to cover GTFS's investors, their family members, field workers and their family members and friends. The present cases relate to the field workers/investors. The insured sums varied from 50,000/- to 10 lac, covering the period ranging between 1 year to 15 years. Under the MOU, GTFS was obliged to collect premium from the proposers and remit the same to the Insurance Company by a consolidated cheque, every week, with the list of insured persons. Since the covering letter, remitting the insurance premium to the Insurance Company has some bearing and gives a glimpse of the number of policies and the quantum of the amount insured and the premium remitted thereon, one of such letter is extracted below:-

"December 3, 1999

To

The Branch Manager

The New India Assurance Co. Ltd.

P-18, Dobson Lane

Howrah - 1

Dear Sir,

Re: J.P.A. Policy (Group) Risk Commence from 23/12/99

We enclose herewith a cheque for Rs. 4,76,718 towards premium group J.P.A. Investors, Field Workers and their family members of Golden Trust Financial Services.

Policies Sum Insured Premium

1. J.P.A. 1 year 2628 policies 6,57,00,000/- 8,21