LIC can`t make consumer pay for its mistake: NCDRC

New Delhi: The Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) cannot make a customer pay for its employees` mistakes, the apex consumer commission has said and asked the PSU to pay Rs 11,000 compensation to a customer for demanding additional premium from him 12 years after he had bought the policy.

The LIC had raised the demand on Sunil Kumar Paliwal, a resident of district Narsinghpur in Madhya Pradesh, when it realised that due to a typographical mistake in two policies issued to him, it was collecting premium from him annually instead of half-yearly.

"Even if there was a typographical mistake the same was committed by the employees of the petitioner (LIC) and cannot be used to the disadvantage of the complainant (Paliwal) by unilaterally changing the terms of the contract after a gap of 12 years," the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) said.