Displaced Persons (Debts Adjustment) Act,1951
Act No : 70
Section :
Claims against insurance companies.
18. Claims against insurance companies. (1) Where any property in West Pakistan belonging to a displaced person was insured with any insurance company before the 15th day of August, 1947, against any risk arising out of fire or theft or riot and civil commotion and there has been a loss in respect of such property arising out of any such risk at a time when the contract of insurance was in force, such company shall not be entitled to refuse payment of the sum due under any claim in relation thereto on the ground that-- (a) no report was lodged with the police within the agreed time, or (b) the claim was not made to the company with the agreed time, or (c) in the case of a policy covering any risk arising out of riot and civil commotion, the disturbances in West Pakistan were not in the nature of a riot or civil commotion, or (d) the displaced person has not fulfilled any other condition of the contract which in the opinion of the Central government is of a technical nature and which the Central Government has, by notification 1* in the Official Gazette, specified as a condition of the contract for the purposes of this section, ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 See notification No. S.R.O. 350, dated February 13, 1953; Gazette of India, 1953, Pt. II, Sec. 3, p. 239. 72 and any contract to the contrary, to the extent to which it is in contravention of the provisions of this sub-section, shall be deemed to have had no effect. (2) Where a loss has been incurred in respect of any property in the circumstances specified in sub-section (1), the Tribunal shall, in every proceeding where it is necessary to do so, determine respectively the amount of the loss, the amount for which the property was insured on the date of such loss, and the amount, if any, paid by the insurance company, and shall make a report thereof to such board or other authority as may be prescribed, and the prescribed board or other authority shall, after taking into account such matters as may be prescribed as being relevant thereto, and subject to any rules made in this behalf, in turn propose to the Tribunal the amount for which the claim against the insurance company shall be decreed, and the Tribunal shall pass a decree accordingly. (3) The amount realised from the insurance company under any decree passed under sub-section (2) shall first be applied towards the satisfaction of the debt due from the displaced person, and the balance, if any, shall be refunded to the displaced person. (4) An application under this section may be made either by a displaced person having a claim against the insurance company in the circumstances specified in sub-section (1) or by an assignee or any other person having an interest in the claim of any such displaced person, to the Tribunal within the local limits of whose jurisdiction the displaced person actually and voluntarily resides or carries on business or personally works for gain or, in the case of a displaced bank making an application under this section, within whose limits the bank carries on business, for the determination of the amount due in respect of the claim in accordance with the provisions of sub-section (2). (5) To every proceeding under sub-section (4) the insurance company and all persons interested in the claim shall be made parties: Provided that the Tribunal may at any stage of the proceeding direct that the name of any person whose presence before the Tribunal may be necessary in order to enable the Tribunal effectually and completely to adjudicate upon and settle all the questions involved, be added to the proceeding. (6) No application under this section shall be entertained in any case where no claim has been made to the insurance company within one year after the date of the loss. 73 Explanation.-A claim shall be deemed to have been made within the meaning of this sub-section if intimation thereof has been given to the insurance company within one year after the date of the loss notwithstanding that the intimation does not specify the amount of the claim or is not in the form, if any, required by the contract of insurance or in any other specified form.
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