Shivani Thakur
Published on: June 20, 2022 at 16:28 IST
Bombay High Court judgement asking Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Company Ltd. to compensate over 3.5 lakh farmers under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) for loss of soya bean harvest owing to high rainfall in 2020 has been delayed by the Supreme Court.
A Bench ordered the insurance company to deposit Rs 200 crore with its registrar within six weeks.
The Bombay High Court circuit bench in Aurangabad has ordered the insurance firm to reimburse soya bean farmers in Maharashtra’s Osmanabad region who sustained crop loss owing to excessive rains in the Kharif season of 2020.
“In the meantime, there will be a stay of operation of the impugned judgment subject to the petitioner depositing an amount of Rs 200 crore with the Registry of this Court within a period of six weeks from today, as requested. The amount deposited shall be invested in an interest bearing fixed deposit in a nationalised bank until further orders,” SC Bench said.
In the event the amount is not deposited within six weeks, the order of stay shall stand automatically vacated without further reference to the court, it ordered.
“If the amount is not paid by the insurance company…the state government is directed to pay such claim for compensation for post-harvest loss caused to the soybean crop in Kharif season 2020 to remaining 3,57,287 agriculturists of Osmanabad district within a period of six weeks thereafter,” the high court had said.
The High Court order had come on a batch of petitions of the farmers challenging the refusal of their insurance coverage for their post-harvesting losses.