At the very beginning, two interesting conditions are present in the application form:
1) Policy wordings are available on request
2) Please complete all sections in capitals and tick boxes wherever applicable.
I am a common man. I do not have the requisite technical knowledge of insurance or its terminology. And Motor Insurance is compulsory! I do not wish to go to jail! What will I do with the policy wordings which are available on request? How do I fill the application when majority of the terms are not understandable?
For example, who understands words like: Proposal form, IDV (Insured Declared Value), Sum Insured, PUC, Total Loss (TL), Constructive Total Loss (CTL), Voluntary Deductible, Vintage and Classic Car Club of India, Automobile Association of India, Third Party Property Damage (TPPD), Legal Liability, Capital Sum Insured, Personal Accident, Hire Purchase/Lease Agreement/Hypothecation Agreement etc.
These words are sample words which are randomly taken from the Motor Insurance Proposal /Application. Even a learned person cannot define or explain the above words with clarity, forget the common man who will wrestle to fill this application. Neither does the application defines these
terms with clarity! Further, the application / proposal form says failure to disclose facts material to assessment of the risk or providing misleading information shall render the contract void!! The insurer takes billions of rupees from the customers without even giving clarity! The punishment for
an innocent mistake is huge…it can render the contract void. Void means cancelled.
Either the Insurance Regulator is intelligent or the customers are stupid. I go with the later. My endeavour therefore is to explain each of the above stated words with clarity in my future articles. This action becomes imperative, unavoidable because it further states that insured proposal and
declaration dated as stated in the schedule shall become the basis of contract!!! God save the stupid customers!!
About the Author
Dr. K. Raja Gopal Reddy is a seasoned internationally qualified Insurance professional.
What you are reading here, may not answer all the questions we have, but has the absolute power of asking unsettling questions which increase the interest in the strange world, and show the contradictory wonders lying just below the surface of the commonest things of life. Look at this disturbing but beautiful thought of Friedrich Nietzsche “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him”.
Dr. Reddy can be reached at: raja66gopal@gmail.com
