The responsibility of the Life Insurance Corporation to conduct proper medical examinations and not to defeat just and reasonable claims of the dependents.

S.K. Keshote, J.-Heard learned Counsel for the petitioners and perused the entire record of the writ petition.

2. In the writ petition the petitioners have challenged to the Judgment and award, dated 09.07.2004, of the non-petitioner No. 1, the Permanent Lok Adalat (District Legal Service Authority) Ajmer, which is placed on the record as Annexure-9 thereto.

3. The applicant non-petitioner filed an application against the petitioner No. 2 for a direction to it to pay her the amount of Rs. 50,000/-of the life insurance policy took by her deceased husband and Rs. 10,000/-as damages; further she prayed for grant of Rs. 5,000/-as cost of the litigation.

4. The defence of the petitioners before the non-petitioner No.1 was that the deceased had oncealed an important and material fact of his suffering from Tuberculosis. It is not gainsay. Tuberculosis is not such a serious disease, which may result in causing death of patient suffering thereby in case proper treatment is taken. It is, as per the medical science, hundred percent curable. The insured died on 212.1999 whereas the policy, in question, was undisputedly taken on 04.06.1997, thus, otherwise also it cannot be taken to be a case of death due to the Tuberculosis.

5. That apart the Life Insurance Corporation of India has to correct its own house. Its agents do the life insurance of the persons without real and effective medical examination of the insured. The certificate of medical examination is merely a paper formality and when the question does arise of payment of the amount of the policy on death of the insured all sorts of objections are taken by it.

6. Whatever the documents produced by the petitioners in support of their plea rightly have not been relied upon by the respondent No. 1 as therefrom no case is made out of concealment of the disease by the deceased insured. The petitioner is not an ordinary litigant; it is the State or the instrumentality/agency of the State within the meaning of Article 12 of the Constitution of India. It is a statutory Corporation. It is not expected to behave as an ordinary litigant. The citizens take the policies for the object and purpose to avoid any financial inconvenience to their families in case of their death, the petitioner Corporation knows it very well. The insurance policies are for socio and economic benefit of the society and thus on the flimsy, baseless, causal and technical objections a just and reasonable claim of the dependents of the amount of the policy on the death of the insured should not be allowed to be defeated.

7. In the result the writ petition fails and the same is dismissed. Consequent upon the dismissal of the writ petition, the stay application, filed therewith, does not survive and the same is also dismissed.