Minimum limits for annuities and other benefits secured by policies of life Insurance

Minimum limits for annuities and other benefits secured by policies of life Insurance

4. (I) No insurer, not being a Co‑operative Life Insurance Society to which Part IV of this Act applies, shall pay or undertake to pay on any policy of life insurance issued after the commencement of the Insurance (Amendment) Act, 1946 (6 of 1946), an annuity of less than one hundred rupees or a gross sum of less than one thousand rupees, exclusive of any profit or bonus provided that this shall not prevent an insurer from converting any policy into a paid‑up policy of any value or payment of surrender value of any amount.

(2) Nothing contained in this section shall apply to any policy of the description known as a group policy, where the number of persons covered by the policy is not less than fifty or such smaller number as may be approved by the Authority and a standard form of the policy has bean certified in writing by the Authority to be a policy of such description or to any policy undertaking to pay a gross sum of more than five hundred rupees or an annuity of more than fifty rupee, issued-­

(a) by an insurer to any person in his permanent employed respect of the life of that person, or

(b) under any scheme, approved by the Authority and complying with such conditions, if any, as he may think fit to impose, whereby premiums due from persons employed under any employer are collected by or under the supervision of the employer,

or to any policy issued by a Mutual insurance Company to which Part lV applies and which the Authority may by order in writing exempt from the provisions of this section, for so long as the company complies with such conditions, if any, as may be prescribed.

Restriction on name of insurer

5. (l) An insurer shall not be registered by a name identical with that by which an insurer in existence is already registered, or so nearly resembling that name as to be calculated to deceive except when the insurer in existence is in the course of being dissolved and signifies his consent to the Authority.

(2) If an insurer, through inadvertence or otherwise is without such consent as aforesaid registered by a name identical with that by which an insurer already in existence whether previously registered or not is carrying on business or so nearly resembling it as to be calculated to deceive, the first ­mentioned insurer shall, if called upon to do so by the Authority on the application of the second‑mentioned insurer, change his name within a time to be fixed by the Authority:

Provided that nothing in this section shall apply to any insurer carrying on business before the 27th‑ day of January, 1937, under the Indian Life Assurance Companies Act, 1912 (6 of 1912):

Provided further that in the application of this section to any insurer who begins to carry on insurance business after the commencement of the Insurance (Amendment) Act, 1946 (6 of 1946), the references to an insurer in existence in sub-section (1) and this sub‑section shall be construed as including references to a provident society (as defined in Part III in existence, whether or not the society is in course of being dissolved.

(3) No insurer other than a provident society as defined in Part III, who begins to carry on insurance business after the commencement of this Act, shall adopt as its name and no such insurer carrying on business before the commencement of this Act shall continue after the expiry of six months from the commencement thereof to use as its name any combination of words which includes the word "provident".

Requirements as to capital

6. No insurer carrying on the business of life insurance, general insurance or re-insurance in India on or after the commencement of the Insurance Regulatory and Development authority Act, 199, shall be registered unless he has,-

(i) a paid-up equity capital of rupees one hundred crores, in case of a person carrying on the business of life insurance or general insurance; or

(ii) a paid-up equity capital of rupees two hundred crores, in case of a person carrying on exclusively the business as a reinsurer :

Provided that in determining the paid-up equity capital specified under clause (i) or clause (ii), the deposit to be made under section 7 and any preliminary expenses incurred in the formation and registration of the company shall be excluded:

Provided further that an insurer carrying on business of life insurance, general insurance or re-insurance in India before the commencement of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority Act, 1999 and who is required to be registered under this Act, shall have a paid-up equity capital in accordance with clause (i) and clause (ii), as the case may be, within sex months of the commencement of that Act.