ORDER

1.      Heard Mr. Sameer Nandwani, Advocate, for the complainant and Mr. Abhishek Gola, Advocate, for the opposite party. 

2.      Khanna Paper Mills Limited has filed aforementioned complaint for directing United India Insurance Company Ltd. (the Insurer) to pay (i) insurance claim of Rs.10939329/- along with interest @18% per annum, from the date of filing of the complaint till actual payment, (ii) cost of the litigation and (iii) any other relief which is deemed fit and proper, in the facts and circumstances of the case.

3.      The facts, as stated in the complaint and emerged from the documents attached with the complaint, are as follows:-

(a) The complainant (hereinafter referred to as the Insured) was a  company incorporated under Companies, Act, 1956 and engaged in the business of manufacture, sale and export of various kinds of quality papers by recycling the waste paper, which were 100% delinked wood free recovered paper. The Insured had a unique state-of-the-art well equipped with latest technology. Annual production of the Insured was 3300 MT of the board, writing and printing paper, in the year of incident. The factory used to run 24 hours continuously. A small breakdown in the machinery may halt the whole production process, reducing production considerably and for this reason the Insured used to repair and restore the machinery without any delay, at its own end and maintain necessary infrastructure for that purpose.

 (b)    United India Insurance Company Ltd. is a public insurance company, engaged in the business of providing different types of insurance services. The Insured used to obtain “Industrial All Risk Policy” from the Insurer, since 1992. The Insured obtained Policy No.200200/11/09/06/00000002, for a sum of Rs.920/- crores, for the period of 01.04.2009 to 31.03.2010, which was a renewal of earlier policy, on (1) Building inclusive permanent fixture fitting used as paper mill, (2) Plant & Machinery of KMP inclusive pipes fittings, accessories and (3) Stocks of all kind of papers, raw materials, finished and semi-finished in factory premises at Fatehgarh Road, Amritsar.   

(c)     On 26.10.2009, some hard metallic material fell on the belt and passed through KMP 5 Roller & Felt and damaged them.  The Insured informed the Insurer about the aforesaid damage through letter dated 26.10.2009. The Insurer appointed Er. Rajesh Kapoor, Amritsar, for preliminary survey, who inspected the damaged KMP 5 Roller & Felt on 26.10.2009 and submitted his Preliminary Survey Report dated 07.11.2009, stating that incident occurred accidently and confirming the damage. 

(d)  The Insurer appointed Kapoor & Company, Surveyor & Loss Assessor, Ludhiana, for survey and assessment of loss on 06.11.2009. The Surveyor inspected the factory premises on 10.11.2009. By that time, damaged KMP 5 Roller & Felt were already repaired/replaced. The Surveyor, vide letter dated 11.11.2009, demanded (i) Estimate of repairs/replacement of Roller Cover, with name and address of the firm to whom the repair job was entrusted. (ii) Copy of Log Sheet. (iii) Copy of fixed assets forming part of the Balance Sheet as on 25.10.2009. (iv) Date of commissioning of the plant No. KPM 5 and information whether the replaced Roller was lying as spare with you already purchased along with this plant or otherwise. The Surveyor issued reminders dated 05.02.2010, 06.04.2010 and 27.09.2010 and emails dated 05.02.2010 and 28.09.2010, but the required papers were not supplied. 

(e)  Due to non-supply of the requisite papers, the Surveyor submitted Survey Report dated 05.10.2010, stating therein that the cost of new Roller was Rs.8/- lacs. The Felt was a component which was most wearable part and practically replaced between 60 to 70 days and it had consumed its life. Excess clause of the policy was up to Rs.5/- lacs. Due to non-supply of the requisite papers, the claim was not payable. Then the Insurer, vide letter dated 08.11.2010, absolved itself from the liability an