New Delhi: The insurance benefit or accident cover that comes with a new credit card may not be as transparent as is made out to be. Ask a Gujarati credit card owner's family that was made to run circles to get the benefits from Standard Chartered Bank after his death but finally got a reprieve from the apex consumer court.

Rapping Standard Chartered Bank in Ahmedabad, the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission in a recent ruling rejected all its alleged attempts to deny insurance benefits - of up to 4 lakh - to the family of Ramesh Bhai, who died in a car accident soon after applying for the credit card in 2000.

"The revision petition (of the bank) is dismissed for want of merit as well as on the ground of limitation (delay in filing the plea)," said the commission's Presiding Member J.M. Malik and Member Vinay Kumar.

The apex consumer court trashed Standard Chartered Bank's stand that on the question of claim under the personal accident insurance cover, the complainant was a consumer of the insurance company and not of the bank.

"It needs to be noted here that there is nothing in the written submissions of the bank before the district forum to show that any part of the arrangement was directly required to be entered into between the deceased and the insurance company," Malik observed.

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The bank also failed to convince the commission that insurance benefits could not be given to the credit card applicant due to his alleged laxity.

Standard Chartered Bank claimed that when the card was received in the post/courier there was a starter's pack in which certain documents were required to be filled and sent to the company and only then would the facility of the card start.

Ramesh Bhai died while he was yet to become a member of the bank and had still not complied with all the requirements for starting the facilities, the bank said.

Malik upheld the lower consumer courts' decision to reject the bank's contention and noted that "on reading the instruction under 'Insurance benefit on you card' it cannot be said that the benefit commences only after filling of declaration of assignment".

"The evidence put before us do not show that such a condition was put forth by the bank that the benefit under the card will not be available unless declaration-cum-undertaking was filled in," the commission said in its recent order, a copy of which is with IANS.

The initial complaint was filed by Ramesh Bhai's father Naran Bhai Shamji Bhai Bhandari, a resident of Amreli, in a district consumer forum. The case then reached the state consumer commission after the bank appealed against a compensation of over 3.61 lakh awarded to Bhandari by the district forum.

The state commission also ruled in favour of the the credit card holder's father, prompting the bank to move the apex consumer court.

Ramesh Bhai had obtained a credit card from the bank valid for the period Oct 1, 2000, to Oct 31, 2002. The visa card carried a personal accident cover, with risk coverage of 4 lakh. His father sought the insurance benefit after he was killed in the accident.

The national consumer commission took exception to the bank's bid to deny the benefits to the credit card holder and said: "Considering the conduct of the revision petitioner, we also deem it proper to award additional cost of 25,000, which shall be paid to the respondent/complainant (Bhandari) within a period of three months. Failing this, the amount shall carry interest at nine percent for the period of delay."

The bank, which had earlier deposited 3.61 lakh with the district forum, now has time till March 9, 2013, to pay the additional cost. It also has the option of moving the Supreme Court against the decision.

The commission also ordered that the money deposited by the bank with the forum be given to Bhandari.

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