The High Court declared that the voter ID card can be considered as a public document under the section 35 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872. At the same time, it cannot be considered as a conclusive proof of date of birth at any circumstance.
- The Policy holder (Petitioner’s father) had insured three life policies in Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) and in turn LIC had issued the bonds for the policies and the mentioned DOB would be 18.03.1952.
- After the death of policy holder, the nominee (petitioner) demanded the insured amount from the corporation and she get the insured amount for two life policies.
- The third one was refused by the LIC for the reason that the DOB in the Voter ID was not matched with the mentioned date in the policy.
- Initially, the petitioner approached Ombudsman for his insured amount. But, te ombudsman validate the act of LIC.
- So, the petitioner filed writ petition challenging the order.
The court analysed the records of the insured policies and found that the one policy’s DOB was based on school certificate, followed by Voter ID, and then basis of two policies and also examined the order of Insurance Ombudsman.
Justice Sanjeeb Kumar Panigrahi held that the LIC committed an error and stated that the insurance company’s policies would categorise the voter list as an non-standard proof and it should be verified with the school records and also held that the insured amount should be disbursed to the petitioner within time of one week.
The Court highlighted that the date of birth mentioned in voter list was merely based on the statement of the concerned adult, not with any concrete proof and it was not a conclusive proof of DOB as per the Susil Kumar V. Rakesh Kumar.
CASE NAME: Tapaswini Panda V. Zonal Manager, LIC of India, Patna & Ors.
NAME: Viswa ganesh K, BALLB (Hons.), School of Excellence in Law, Dr. Ambedkar Law University, INTERN UNDER LEGAL VIDHIYA.
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