An employee is also a consumer and when his own company refuses to oblige his demands as a consumer of the company’s services, the employee is forced to take the company to the court as a disgruntled consumer.
This is what has happened with the PSU Oriental Insurance Company. Akshay Panchal, 54, works in the claims department at Oriental Insurance Company, and ironically, the company refused to clear his insurance claim.
Panchal, a resident of Vasna in Gujarat, had a personal accident insurance policy for the past 25 years. In February 2016, Panchal and his wife met with an accident, while riding a two-wheeler. Due to this accident, he suffered from slipped disc and was advised bed rest by the doctors.
He also got a medical certificate for the same and then he filed a claim of Rs 1.5 lakh against his company. However, Oriental Insurance Company rejected the claim stating that no external injuries were visible and that slipped disc is a chronic disease caused by external violence and not be accident.
Following the rejection by his own company, Panchal then moved to the consumer court in 2016. He claimed that Oriental Insurance refuted his claim just on the basis of medical report and not by verifying through an in-panel doctor.
