Appellants must comply with awarded amounts under consumer protection laws despite arguments on procedural issues.

ORDER

1. Heard learned counsel for the Petitioner.

2. Challenge is to the order dated 19.03.2025 of the State Commission vide which appeal filed by the respondent herein was allowed and following directions were issued :

18. In view of the above stated facts, appeal of the appellant / complainant is allowed and impugned order passed by District Commission is set aside.

19. The complainant has paid premium from 23.08.2012 i.e. for 72 months @ Rs.172/- per month and as such the total amount deposited by the complainant as premium comes to Rs.12,384. Therefore, the complainant is entitled to said amount alongwith interest.

20. Accordingly, the opposite parties / postal department are directed to pay the total sum of Rs.12,384/- alongwith interest @ 9% per annum from the date of filing of the complaint i.e.

01.01.2019 till its realization.

21. The opposite parties / postal department are further directed to pay Rs.10,000/- as compensation for mental agony and harassment besides litigation cost of Rs.5000/- to the complainant.

22. The opposite parties / postal department are directed to comply the aforesaid order within 45 days from the date of passing of order.

3. Petitioner has challenged the order of the State Commission on the following grounds :

a. State Commission failed to appreciate that respondent could deposit the monthly premium of their policy in manual mode at Branch Post Office Mahog near to his residence or in any other Post Office but he did not credit the due premium. The Applicant has already been informed that his policy is not terminated by the department and complainant will get all the due benefits of the policy in question on its maturity date i.e. 23.08.2024.

b. In the year 2015-16 the Government of India, Department of Post decided to switch over to Postal Life Insurance new software named McCamish under Core Insurance Solution (CIS). In Himachal Pradesh, Postal Circle, this new software was implemented during October, 2015 to January-2016 and the existing policies in the old software were migrated into new CIS-MeCamish platform. Later on it has come to notice that many policies could not be migrated due to some unexplained technical reasons including the policy in appeal. Now all the policies have been migrated to new CIS-McCamish. Now the said policy has matured on 23.08.2024 and maturity value, as admissible, can be paid to the respondent.

c. State Commission failed to appreciate that the respondent has deposited monthly premium in the policy no. R-HP-CH-EA-34 till July 2018, manually for 3-4 years, after migration to new software without any difficulty and stopped depositing premium at his own and Postal Department never refused to deposit the premium in the said policy since August, 2018 onward despite being requested and the Guardian/mother of insurant was duly informed of the fact through letters of different dates.

d. When the complaint was filed by the respondent, the policy was not terminated and the respondent was asked to deposit the premium and only then will he be entitled for the benefit arising out of the policy, but the respondent has not deposited the premium as policy was not found over net. At that time the policy was to mature on 23 Aug 2024 and before its maturity date, the complainant had no cause of action to file the complaint in respect of policy in question because the policy has not been terminated by the Department of Posts.

e. State Commission grossly failed to appreciate the fact that the said policy (R-

HP-CH-EA-34) was not available for surrender since Children policy does not qualify for Surrender as per POLI Rules , 2011. As per rules, the respondent is eligible for the m