New Delhi: The Supreme Court yesterday said that the rules and regulations governing the payment of insurance claims could not come in the way of people of Kashmir who lost their properties in the recent devastating floods that had hit the state.
A bench of Chief Justice H L Dattu, Justice S A Bobde and Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre said this as it declined to interfere with the Jammu and Kashmir High Court’s order directing the insurance companies to pay 95 percent of a claim up to `.2.5m and 50 percent in respect of claims above `2.5m .
“Sometimes we have to ignore the rules and regulation (for paying insurance claims) in the interest of the people suffering from natural calamities,” the court said. It refused to accede to repeated submissions by Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi and senior counsel M N Krishnamani seeking a month’s time to carry out the survey of the insurance claims by the people who lost their belongings in the unprecedented floods that hit the state.
“The chief justice of the high court has seen the tragedy with his own eyes and he is justified in passing the order. Not one shop can be opened at Lal Chowk. There is no shop in Lal Chowk,” Chief Justice Dattu said, justifying the high court order on the payment of the insurance claims without carrying out mandatory verification of the claims.
“We are not going to change even a word from the high court order,” he said, brushing aside all submissions seeking a hold on the high court order.
