LEGAL ASPECT OF LIFE INSURANCE

Presented By-
Rohit Pandey
Pulkit Mehta
Latika Sharma
Rahul Iyer
Anirudha Monga
Anuj Sharma
 DEFINITION AND MEANING OF LAW

• The principles and regulations established in a community by some authority and

applicable to its people, whether in the form of legislation or of custom and policies
recognized and enforced by judicial decision.

• Any written or positive rule or collection of rules prescribed under the authority of the
state or nation, as by the people in its constitution.

• The controlling influence of such rules; the condition of society brought about by their
observance
 SOURCES OF LAW

• Law in India primarily evolved from customary practices and religious prescription to the
modern well codified acts and laws based on a constitution.

• Though the recorded history of law starts only in the Vedic period, it is widely believed
that ancient India had some sort of legal system in place even during the Bronze Age and
the Indus Valley civilization.

• The various stages of evolution of Indian law is classified as that during the Vedic period,
the Islamic period, the British period and post independence.
 VEDIC PERIOD

• In comparison with modern law, the classical Hindu law was a peculiar legal system as it
followed a unique arrangement of law and polity with a unique scheme of values.
• Ancient India represented a distinct tradition of law, and had a historically independent
school of legal theory and practice.
• The main aim of the law in the Vedic period was to preserve "dharma" which means
righteousness and duty.
• Dharma consists of both legal duties and religious duties. It not only includes laws and
court procedures, but also a wide range of human activities like ritual purification,
personal hygiene regimes, and modes of dress.
• Dharma provided the principal guidance by which one endeavored to lead his life.
 ANCIENT INDIAN LAW

The Legal system in ancient India

•The ancient Aryan rulers of India were confronted by political, economic, and social
problems in many ways similar to those with which modern British statesmen and social
reformers are struggling, and their solutions of them, according to all the evidence of history,
were much more satisfactory to the people at large than any which modern Europe has
found.

•The freedom and general happiness attained by the people of Great Britain with the help of
Parliamentary institutions and the richest revenues of the world can hardly be compared with
that which Indians within the Aryan pale enjoyed both before and after the fifth century
A.D.—the time which we regard as Dark Age.
• The Indo- Aryan constitution, built up by the highest intelligence of the people upon the
basis of the village communities, and not wrung from unwilling war-lords and landlords
by century-long struggles and civil war, secured to the Indian peasant-proprietor not only
the ownership of the land, but very considerable powers of self government.

• From 300 A.D to 1192 A.D India is said to worlds most developed country, its GDP was
equivalent to 25% of worlds GDP, followed by China which had 15% share in World
GDP.

• This tremendous development is impossible without very sound justice dispensing system
during that Golden age, to the contrary some Historians and Foreign Jurists opined that
there was no ‘rule of law’ in ancient India, if so what was the system of Justice
Administration that was in existence during that day and which ‘norms’ (Laws) of ancient
Indian society contributed to attainment such highest stage of Human Civilization.
• Henry Maine described the legal system of ancient India "as an apparatus of cruel
absurdities".
• An Anglo-Indian jurist made the following remark about what he called "the oriental
habits of life" of the Indians before the British turned up in India: "It (British rule in India)
is a record of experiments made by foreign rulers to govern alien races in a strange land,
to adapt European institutions to Oriental habits of life, and to make definite laws supreme
amongst peoples who had always associated government with arbitrary and uncontrolled
authority.
• " Alan Gledhill, a retired member of the Indian Civil Service, wrote that when the British
seized power in India, "there was a dearth of legal principles."
• For Bernard Cohn, the ancient constitution rendered Indian history as antique, static and
theocratic.
 JUDICIAL SYSTEM IN ANCIENT INDIA

• The concept of Dharma that ruled Indian civilization, from Vedic period up to Muslim
invasion from King to his last servant everyone was bound by Dharma, The word Dharma
is derived from "dhr" to mean to uphold, sustain or nourish.
• The Seers often use it in close association with ‘rta’ and ‘satya’.
• Sri Vidyaranya defines ‘rta’ as the mental perception and realization of God.
• Dharma is generally mean ‘principle of righteousness’ or ‘duty’, principle of holiness and
also the principle of unity
 RULE OF LAW IN ANCIENT INDIA

• The British while justifying their colonial rule in India claimed Indians lacked civilized
system of self rule and their presence in this country gave India a sense of justice and Rule
of law.

• Many Indians today held these views in their heart. These views are not only incorrect but
they are blatant lies.

• In fact there was no match for Rule of law that existed in ancient India; even
Englishman’s Rule of Law looks too conservative before that lofty ideal of ancient Indian
rule of law.

• In the Mahabharata, it was laid down "A King who after having sworn that he shall protect
his subjects fails to protect them should be executed like a mad dog."
• It is ironical, that in a country where ‘King can do no wrong’ principal is in existence, how
dare they may be to conclude Indian ancient legal system is full of absurdities.
• In the heyday of imperialism defying observation were made about Indian Legal system
by some the European Historians, Prof. J.S.Patil in his discourse always reminds us, that
Historians of Europe always used to see India through their English glasses, for this
reason there observations remained far from reality.
• Thus, in monarchy, the concept of law developed to control the exercise of arbitrary
powers of the monarchs who claimed divine powers to rule.
• In democracy, the concept has assumed different dimension and means that the holders of
public powers must be able to justify publicly that the exercise of power is legally valid
and socially just.
 JUDICIAL SET UP IN INDIA

• Courts and Justice system in India The courts are divided into three categories with top
court, middle court and lower court.

• The top court is named as the Supreme Court, while the middle court is named as High
Court, and the lower court is named as District Court.

• The judicial system will also feature the different aspects of the judicial system with the
period taken for getting the disputes dissolved with the present infrastructure of Indian
judiciary system.

• This system provides livelihood to huge number of professionals attached with the system
of judiciary in different forms and thus serve the nation with the service.
• Because of the size of the country, the judiciary system is planned as per the requirement
of the citizen of India with the location of courts as per status to serve the community of
India with efficiency.
• The court structure is set as per the judiciary system prevailing in India with
differentiation of applicability as per the merit of the case.
• The hierarchical structure of court is being endorsed by the Constituency of India.
• Two aspects of judiciary system in India –
1. Hierarchy of courts in India
2. The judicial system of India
 Hierarchy of Indian Courts

• The feature Indian judiciary system is its hierarchical structure of courts.

• This system is strong enough to make limitation of court with its jurisdiction and exercise
of the power.

Supreme Court of India

As conferred by Articles 124 to 147 of Indian Constituency, the jurisdiction and composition
of the Supreme Court is being fixed. This court is primarily of the status of appellate
court. This court is accepting the appeals of cases which are being heard in the High courts
situated in different states and union territories with dissatisfaction of related parties
• This court also accepts writ petitions with the suspected occurrence of activities which
may infer about violation of human rights and subsequent petitions are accepted to hear
and judge the consequences of such happenings.

• These types of petitions are accepted under Article 32 of Indian constitution.

• This court is comprised of the Chief Justice along with 30 other judges to carry on the
operation of the court. The proceeding of the Supreme Court is being heard only in
the language of English.

• The Supreme Court is governed by the Supreme Court Rules which was published in
the year 1966.
 HIGH COURT OF INDIA

•High Courts are second Courts of Importance of the democracy of India.They are run
by Article 141 of the Constitution of India. They are governed by the bindings conferred by
the Supreme Court of India so far judgments and orders are concerned.
•There are 24 high courts in India taking care of the regional juridical system of India out of
which Kolkata High Court is the oldest.
•These courts are mainly confined to the jurisdiction of state, group of states or Union
Territory.
•They are being empowered to govern the jurisdiction of lower courts like family, civil and
criminal courts with other different courts of the districts.
•These courts are of the statute of principal civil courts so far originality of jurisdiction is
concerned in the related domain of the states and the other district courts.
• But normally the high courts are involved in the appeals raised in the cases of lower
courts with the writ petitions as conferred in Article 226 of the Constitution of India.

• The appointment of the judges of High Courts are being executed by the President of
India with the consultation of the Chief Justice of India, the Chief Justice of High Court
and the Governor of the state or union territory.

• The high courts with handling of most of the cases of a particular area are provided with
the facility of permanent benches or branches of the court situated there only.
 LOWER COURTS OF INDIA

District Courts
•The basis of structuring of district courts in India is mainly depending upon the
discretion of the state governments or the union territories.
•The structure of those courts are mainly made considering several factors like the number
of cases, distribution of population, etc.
•Normally these types of courts exercise their power of juridical service in district
level.
• These courts are covered by the administrative power of the High Courts under which the
district courts are covered. The judgments of the district courts are subject to review to the
appellate jurisdiction of the respective high court
• The district courts are mainly run by the state government appointed district
judges.

• There are additional district judges and assistant district judges who are there to share the
additional load of the proceedings of District Courts.

• These additional district judges have equal power like the district judges for the
jurisdiction area of any city which has got the status of metropolitan area as conferred by
the state government.

• The subordinate courts covering the civil cases, in this aspect are considered as Junior
Civil Judge Court, Principal Junior and Senior Civil Judge Court, which are also
known as Sub Courts, Subordinate Courts.
• The subordinate courts covering the criminal cases are Second Class Judicial Magistrate
Court, First Class Judicial Magistrate Court, and Chief Judicial Magistrate
Court along with family courts which are founded to deal with the issues related to
disputes of matrimonial issues only.
• There are in total 351 district courts in operation out of which 342 are of states while 9
are of union territories.
Village Courts
•The village courts are named as Lok Adalat or Nyaya Panchyat which means the
service of justice extended to the villagers of India.
•This is the system for resolving disputes in micro level. The need of these courts is justified
though the Madras Village Court Act of 1888.
•This act is followed by the development post 1935 in different provinces, which are re-
termed as different states after the independence of 1947.
• This conceptual model had been started to be sued from the state of Gujarat consisting of
a judge and two assessors since 1970s.

• The Law Commission had recommended in 1984 to form the Nyaya Panchayats in the
rural areas with the people of educational attainment.

• The latest development had been observed in 2008 through initiation of Gram Nyaylayas
Act which had sponsored the concept of installation of 5000 mobile courts throughout the
country.

• These courts are assigned to judge the petty cases related to civil and criminal offence
which can generate the penalty of up to 2 years imprisonment.
INSURANCE LAW AND PRACTICE
 ACTS REGULATE INSURANCE IN INDIA

• Insurance Act ,1938

• Irda Act, 1999
• Fema
• Insurance Co-op Society
• Insurance Stamp Act, 1899
• Consumer Protection Act, 1986
• Insurance Ombudsman
 FRAMEWORK UNDER THE INSURANCE
ACT,1938

1. Part I: (Section 1 to Section 2B)

Part I of Insurance Act, 1938 deals with Definitions, interpretation of Certain Words and
expressions and Appointment of Authority in India
2. Part II: (Section 2C to Section 64)
Part II of Insurance Act contains provisions relating to:
(a) Insurers (Section 2 C to Section 26)
(b) Investment, Loans and Management(Section 27 to Section 32C)
(c) Investigation (Section 33)
(d) Appointment of Staff (Section 33A to Section 34)
(e) Control over Management(Section 34A to Section 34H)
(f) Amalgamation and Transfer of Insurance Business(Section 35 to Section 37A)
(g) Assignment or Transfer of Policies and Nominations (Section 38 to Section 39)
(h) Commission and Rebates and Licensing of Agents(Section 40 to Section 44A)
(i) Special Provisions of Law(Section 45 to Section 52)
(j) Management by Administrator(Section 52 A to Section 52G)
(k) Acquisition of the Undertakings of Insurers in certain cases(Section 52H to Section 52N)
(l) Winding up(Section 53 to Section 61)
(m) Special Provisions relating to External Companies(Section 62 to Section 64)
• PART II A (Section 64A to Section 64T)
PART II A contains provisions relating to Insurance Association of India, Council of the
Association and Commi1lees thereof (Section 64 to Section 64T)
• PART IIB (Section 64U to Section 64UM)
PART II B contains provisions relating to TARIFF ADVISORY (Section 64U to Section
64UM)
• PART IIC (Section 64 V to Section 64VC)
PART II C contains provisions relating to Solvency Margin, Advance Payment of Premium
and Restrictions on the Opening of A New Place of Business
• 3. PART III (Section 65 to Section 94)
Part III contains provisions relating to Provident Societies PART IIIA (Section 94A)
Part III A contains provisions relating to Insurance Co-Operative Societies
• 4. PART IV (Section 95 to Section 101)
Part IV contains provisions relating to Mutual insurance Companies and
cooperative life insurance societies
PART IVA (Section 101A to Section 101C)
Part IV A contains provisions relating To Re-Insurance
• 5. PART V (Section 102 to Section 120)
Part V contains provisions relating to miscellaneous matters
 IMPORTANT PROVISIONS OF INSURANCE
ACT, 1938

• (a) Incorporation of insurance companies, issue of licence and renewal of licence

(Sections 2C to 5)
• (b) Requirements as to Capital, Transfer of shares, Voting Rights etc.(Sections 6, 6A to
6C)
• (c) Deposits with Reserve Bank of India (Sections 7 to 9)
• (d) Accounts, Audit and Actuarial report and Abstract (Sections 10, 11, 12)
• (e) Provisions Relating to Investments (Sections 27, 27A, 27B, 27E)
THANK YOU.