The Supreme Court sought responses from the Centre and LIC on a plea for disability sensitive insurance guidelines. The petition invokes Articles 14 and 21, urging policy oversight to ensure welfare schemes for persons with disabilities are fair and accessible.
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has called for replies from the Union government and the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) in a petition seeking directions for the LIC to develop and implement disability-sensitive guidelines for welfare insurance schemes.
A bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta agreed to take up the matter. The petition asks the court to direct the Centre to exercise policy oversight to ensure that welfare insurance schemes for persons with disabilities are implemented in line with the guarantees under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution.
While Article 14 relates to equality before the law, Article 21 protects life and personal liberty.
“Issue notice, returnable within four weeks,” the bench said.
The plea seeks a direction to the LIC to frame and implement disability-sensitive guidelines for welfare insurance schemes, including the ‘Jeevan Aadhar’ policy.
The LIC’s ‘Jeevan Aadhar’ scheme is stated to be available for an individual with a handicapped dependent who meets the conditions set out in Section 80DDA of the Income Tax Act, 1961. It provides life insurance coverage for the purchaser for the duration of their lifetime.
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Section 80DDA of the Income Tax Act deals with deductions for deposits made for the maintenance of a handicapped dependent.
The petition further asks that claims under welfare insurance schemes involving beneficiaries with intellectual, mental, and congenital disabilities resulting in inability to independently understand, communicate, or assert contractual and legal rights be handled on a case-by-case basis through reasoned, humane, and non-mechanical decision-making.
It also seeks a direction that the LIC frame a policy so that the annuity for persons with disabilities under ‘Jeevan Aadhar’ begins automatically when the policyholder attains the age of 60 years, or any other age that may be specified.
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