Icici Lombard General Insurance vs Manoranjan Muduli And Another
2022 Latest Caselaw 2918 Ori

                IN THE HIGH COURT OF ORISSA AT CUTTACK
                                  W.P.(C) No.17342 of 2020
                                  (Through hybrid mode)

              ICICI Lombard General Insurance         ....                   Petitioners
              Company Ltd. and another
                                                             Mr. G. P. Dutta, Advocate

                                              -versus-

              Manoranjan Muduli and another           ....             Opposite Parties
                                                         Mr. Asutosh Mishra, Advocate


                        CORAM: JUSTICE ARINDAM SINHA
                                        ORDER

29.06.2022 Order No.

03. 1. Mr. Dutta, learned advocate appears on behalf of petitioners

(insurance company). He submits, impugned is award dated 12th March,

2020 of the Permanent Lok Adalat (PLA). The facts are, the insured took

accident cover, died on a working day and postmortem report states that

death was due to Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI) due to Coronary

Artery Disease (CAD).

2. The PLA interpreted the facts as the insured having slipped and fell in

the staircase of his office on return from a motorcycle journey undertaken

for official purpose. This in spite of absence of external injury. He hands up

his client's policy wordings personal protect information given as part-II of

schedule. Definition of accident is given therein as :-

// 2 //

"Accident is a sudden, unforeseen and involuntary event caused by external, visible and violent means."

3. He relies on judgment of the Supreme Court in Alka Shukla vs. Life Insurance Corporation of India (LICI), reported in AIR 2019 SC 2088 paragraphs 9,11 and 12.

4. Mr. Mishra, learned advocate appears on behalf of opposite party no.1 and relies on impugned award. He submits, the PLA followed judgment of a Division Bench of Madhya Pradesh High Court in Sunderbai vs. G.M. Ordinance Factory, Khamaria, reported in 1976 Lab I.C. 1163 wherein, inter alia, following view was expressed on accident:-

"(b) Accident and injury are distinct in cases where accident is an event happening externally to a man i.e. when a man falls from a ladder and suffers injury. But accident may be an event happening internally to a man and in such cases accident and injury coincide. Such cases are illustrated by bursting of an aneurism, failure of heart and like while the man is doing his normal work."

Mr. Mishra, then prays for adjournment to make his comments on Alka Shukla (supra).

5. List on 11th July, 2022, as prayed for by Mr. Mishra. The interim order will be considered on returnable date.

(Arindam Sinha) Judge Prasant