Udupi Human Rights Protection Foundation president Ravindranath Shanbhag speaks at a press conference on Friday, March 14, in Udupi.
| Photo Credit: UMESH S. SHETTIGAR

With over 50,000 LIC’s Jeevan Madhur policyholders in 200 villages in Chikkamagaluru district yet to get justice for the premium they paid to LIC’s Udupi Division, there was no meaning to observe the Consumer Rights Day on May 15, rued Ravindranath Shabhag, president of Human Rights Protection Foundation, Udupi.

The policyholders who had paid premium through agents appointed by the LIC were waiting for justice for the last nine years as the Karnataka State Consumer Protection Forum has remained without a head since May 2024. Though the government informed the High Court of Karnataka in February this year that the appointment process was on, culminating in the dismissal of a PIL in that regard, forum president was not yet appointed. Similarly, posts at many district forums too have remained vacant for long, he told reporters in Udupi on Friday, March 14.

Dr. Shanbhag said the Udupi Division of LIC had rolled out the Jevan Madhur policy of the Corporation and appointed three agents, Samanvaya Grameena Abhivriddhi Samsthe, Shubhodaya Grameena Abhivriddhi Samsthe, and Mukkanneshwari Yuvathi Mandali to collect premium in Chikkamagaluru district in 2005. The policy had offered one of the cheapest life insurance schemes wherein the beneficiary had to pay ₹600 premium a year to avail cover of ₹15,000.

The agents in turn collected the premium through Anganwadi workers of respective villages. The Anganwadi workers promptly collected the premium, paid to the respective agent and obtained receipts. When LIC refused to pay the insurance cover to one of the beneficiaries on her death in 2013 saying the policy was not in vogue, beneficiaries realised the fraud, Dr. Shanbhag said.

In one case involving 60 beneficiaries, LIC Udupi Division admitted its folly before the Chikkamagaluru District Consumer Forum and refunded the premium amount with penalty. However, it did not follow up criminal cases filed against its agents.

Cases filed by over 50,000 other beneficiaries were pending before the State Forum for many years, he said. His foundation took up the cause of the defrauded beneficiaries and fighting for them since 2016.