Gujarat High Court: While determining the maintainability of a Public Interest Litigation (‘PIL’) regarding the insurance claims of farmers registered under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (‘PMFBY’), whose kharif crops had been damaged by the floods in Gujarat in 2017, the Division Bench of Sunita Agarwal, CJ* and D.N. Ray, J, directed SBI General Insurance Company Ltd (‘Insurance company’) to disburse the pending claim settlement money amounting to approximately Rs. 7.5 crores within a period of three weeks.
Background
The instant PIL pertained to insurance claims of farmers registered under the PMFBY whose crops had been destroyed by the uncontrolled floods in Gujarat in July 2017. The Court, by order dated 7-10-2020 had directed the officers of the insurance company to extend all cooperation to sort out the issue. Pursuant to the said order, a Committee had been constituted by the State government to examine claims of insured farmers on the basis on which an order dated 11-7-2023 was passed by the Director of Agriculture, Gandhinagar. The said report recorded that claim settlement of Rs 7,48,86,898 towards 15,47 farmers affected during kharif 2017 season was still pending with the insurance company.
Furthermore, the Court noted that despite repeated representations by the affected farmers, no efforts had been made to implement the order dated 7-10-2020 or make payment in accordance with the order dated 11-7-2023. The Court observed that there had been a deliberate delay and denial of claim settlement by the insurance company.
In light of the same, the Court held that the insurance company was required to make payment as per the losses assessed by the order dated 11-7-2023. The insurance company was directed to deposit the pending claim amount of Rs 7,48,86,898 with simple interest charged at 8 per cent per annum, to be disbursed proportionately to eligible farmers, within a period of three weeks.
[Patel Jayantibhai Prabhubhai v. The Manager, 2025 SCC OnLine Guj 3344, decided on 8-8-2025]
*Order by: Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal
Advocates who appeared in this case :
For the Applicant: Pathik M. Acharya, Advocate
For the Respondent: Manisha Lavkumar, Addl. Advocate General, Raj Tanna, Asst. Government Pleader, Mihir Joshi, Senior Counsel, Mitul Shelat, Raveena Kinhabwala, Disha N. Nanavaty, Advocates
