Ahmedabad: The Gujarat State Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission directed the National Insurance Company to pay compensation to a widow who was denied compensation for the death of a buffalo because its ear tag was missing.After a decade-long legal battle, the cattle owner Janakben Mahida from Sojitra in Anand district will get Rs 38,000 towards insurance, and Rs 20,000 extra as compensation for mental agony and the legal expenditure she incurred in her legal battle.In this case, Mahida’s buffalo, which was insured through the milk cooperative, lost its ear tag, the only identification mark for an insured animal. Mahida obtained a new tag on Dec 15, 2015. However, before she could fix the new ear tag, the buffalo died the next morning. Mahida claimed the insurance amount by presenting a veterinary certificate and cooperative society documents supporting that the insured buffalo died. The insurance company did not respond to her claim, resulting in a complaint before the Anand District Consumer Dispute Redressal Forum, which rejected Mahida’s claim because the buffalo did not have an ear tag fixed.Mahida appealed in the state consumer commission through consumer rights activist Mukesh Parikh. After the hearing, the commission said that the buffalo expired before any practical opportunity arose for Mahida to re-fix the newly issued ear tag. While allowing the appeal, it said, “The purpose of ear tagging in cattle insurance is to establish identity and to prevent substitution or fraudulent claims. In the present case, there is neither any allegation nor any evidence of fraud, substitution or manipulation. The identity of the buffalo is otherwise clearly established through contemporaneous documentary evidence, including veterinary certification and records of the cooperative society.”
