In insurance claims, courts should avoid hyper-technical denials based on clerical address errors and must properly consider independent surveyor reports. While restoration bills are relevant, they cannot completely replace a formal surveyor's loss assessment without providing substantive reasoning for disregarding the surveyor's expertise.

ORDER

JUDGMENT

DR. SUDHIR KUMAR JAIN, J.

1. Briefly stated relevant facts of the case as stated in the complaint are that the respondent/the complainant/Ms.Guljit Chaudhri (hereinafter referred to as “the respondent”) has taken a Standard Fire and Special Perils Policy bearing no. 361800/11/13/3300000051 (hereinafter referred to as “the policy”) in respect of the property bearing no 465, Pocket V, Udyog Vihar Industrial Area, Gurgoan-1220215, Haryana for a period with effect from 20.05.2013 to 19.05.2015 (midnight) through agent Balram Singh Bhandari. The respondent is the owner/allottee of the property which was allotted by HSIIDC and was approved for carrying out the business of Clinical Research and Data Management. M/s Bioinnovat Research Services Private Limited (hereinafter referred to as "Bioinnovat") was a tenant in respect of the ground, first, and part of the third floors of the property. Bioinnovat was carrying business of clinical research and data management since its incorporation in July, 2005 and the property was applied for furthering the project of Bioinnovat. The respondent is the founder and managing director of Bioinnovat besides holding 50% equity. Ms. Sukrita Sethi who is daughter of the respondent is holding 47% of the equity. A lease deed dated 01.07.2009 was also executed between the respondent and Bioinnovat. The appellant/the opposite party/ National Insurance Company Limited (hereinafter referred to as “the appellant”) before purchase of the policy through its agent and officers explained and the elaborated services proved by it in relation to fire and other perilous incidents and further explained that claims in eventuality of such incidents would be processed in a prompt, efficient and hassle free manner. The appellant insured the building as well as fixtures and other structures elements under the policy. The respondent also purchased a similar policy in respect of another property bearing no. 774, Pocket V, Udyog Vihar Industrial Area. The respondent is a long standing customer of the appellant.

1.1 A fire was broke out on 20.01.2014 at about 9 pm on the first floor of property and the first floor due to fire suffered severe damage and the remaining portions of the property sustained damage by smoke and water during rescue operations. The portion of the property damaged due to fire was under the tenancy of Bionnovat. The fire could be extinguished by midnight by deploying three fire brigades including a large hydraulic fire engine. Due to fire almost everything on the first floor was burnt beyond recovery but there was no loss of human life. The respondent suffered huge losses including damage to air conditioning units, structural elements, entire furniture, fixtures, electronics, office stationary, documents, transformer cabling, generator cabling, glass facade, lift etc. The respondent promptly informed the appellant about the incident and also provided with the insurance policy and related documents for processing the claim as early as possible. The appellant also appointed surveyor M/s Cunningham Lindsey International Insurance Surveyors and Loss Assessors Private Limited (hereinafter referred to as “the surveyor”) and affected portion of the property was surveyed by the surveyor. The respondent after the fire incident immediately provided tentative assessment of the claim on 21.01.2015 but without actual investigation of the affected premises of the property. The respondent after physical examination of the premises submitted a revised estimate of Rs. 90,00,0