Legal Reference Library

Supreme Court of India United India Insurance Co. Ltd vs M.K.J. Corporation on 21 August, 1996 Bench: K. Ramaswamy, G.B. Pattanaik            CASE NO.: Appeal (civil)  6075-6076 of 1995 PETITIONER: UNITED INDIA INSURANCE CO. LTD. RESPONDENT: M.K.J. CORPORATION DATE OF JUDGMENT: 21/08/1996 BENCH: K. RAMASWAMY & G.B. PATTANAIK ............... It is a fundamental principle of Insurance Law that utmost good faith must be observed by the contracting parties. Good faith forbids either party from concealing (non-disclosure) what he privately knows, to draw the other into a bargain, from his ignorance of that fact and his believing the contrary. Just as the insured has a duty to disclose, "similarly, it is the duty of the insurers and their agents to disclose all material facts within their Knowledge, since obligation of good faith applies to them equally with the assured. The duty of good faith is of a continuing n...

Cited: 1) Dr. Suresh Gupta v. Govt. of NCT of Delhi and Anr. (2004) 6 SCC 422 2) Law of Torts, Ratanlal & Dhirajlal (Twenty-fourth Edition 2002, edited by Justice G.P. Singh) 3) Charlesworth & Percy on Negligence (Tenth Edition, 2001) 4) R. v. Lawrence, [1981] 1 All ER 974 (HL) 5) Andrews v. Director of Public Prosecutions, [1937] A.C. 576 6) Syad Akbar v. State of Karnataka (1980) 1 SCC 30 7) Reg v. Idu Beg (1881) 3 All. 776 8) Bhalchandra Waman Pathe v. State of Maharashtra 1968 Mh.L.J. 423 9) Michael Hyde and Associates v. J.D. Williams & Co. Ltd., [2001] P.N.L.R. 233, CA, Sedley L.J. 10) Bolam v. Friern Hospital Management Committee, [1957] 1 W.L.R. 582, 586' 11) Eckersley v. Binnie, [1988] 18 Con. L.R. 1, 79  12) Halsbury’s Laws of England (Fourth Edition, Vol.30, Para 35) 13) Hucks v. Cole, [1968] 118 New U 469 14) Maynard v. West Midlands Regional Health Authority, [1985] 1 All ER 635 (HL) 15) Hunter v. Hanley 1955 SLT 213 at 217...