Agriculture Insurance Company of India Ltd. v. Branch Manager
Case brief
What is this about?
PMFBY Kharif-2019 crop insurance claims denied for want of National Crop Insurance Portal entry; Punjab National Bank Bhandarpur branch deducted and remitted premium but did not upload farmer particulars despite repeated extensions; insurer (Agriculture Insurance Company of India Ltd.) retained premium till 28.05.2020 without cover or refund; joint and several liability of Bank and insurer upheld by District Commission Rajnandgaon, Chhattisgarh State Consumer Commission and NCDRC; Condition No. 27 of State Notification dated 08.07.2019 (refund within three weeks failing which insurer liable); Clauses 17.2 and 35.5.13 PMFBY Operational Guidelines cannot shield negligent insurer; limits of Article 227 supervisory jurisdiction (Shalini Shyam Shetty; Radhey Shyam); beneficial welfare scheme interpretation; inter se liability adjustment left open; writ petitions dismissed.
What did the court decide?
In exercising supervisory jurisdiction under Article 227 the Court does not sit as a court of appeal over the findings of tribunals below; interference is warranted only where findings suffer from patent perversity, manifest illegality or jurisdictional error, per the parameters authoritatively explained in Shalini Shyam Shetty v. Rajendra Shankar Patil, (2010) 8 SCC 329 (and reiterated in Radhey Shyam v. Chhabi Nath, (2015) 5 SCC 423).