Insurance company cannot deny claim on ground of delay in intimation of theft: Supreme Court

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The Supreme Court recently reiterated that an insurance company cannot repudiate a claim merely on the ground of delay in intimation of theft of an insured vehicle.

A Division Bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Bela M Trivedi held,

"When the complainant had lodged the FIR immediately after the theft of the vehicle, and when the police after the investigation had arrested the accused and also filed challan before the concerned Court, and when the claim of the insured was not found to be not genuine, the Insurance Company could not have repudiated the claim merely on the ground that there was a delay in intimating the Insurance Company about the occurrence of the theft." 

The Supreme court in the present case relied on its 2020 decision in Gurshinder Singh v. Shriram General Insurance Company Limited and Another, where it was held that when an insured has lodged the FIR immediately after the theft of a vehicle and when the police after investigation have lodged a final report, then mere delay in intimating the insurance company about the occurrence of the theft cannot be a ground to deny the claim of the insured.