Page 29 - India Insurance Report 2023- BIMTECH

India Insurance Report - Series II 17

“Section 25 (2) – The Insurance Advisory Committee shall consist of not more than twenty-
five members, excluding ex officio members to represent the interests of commerce, industry,
transport, agriculture, Healthcare, Technology, Marketing, insurance, and Corporate
Governance, etc. The sector experts would also include professionals from the international
financial and insurance community.”
b. Composition of the Authority/Tenure of office (Section 4/5 of the IRDA Act, 1999)

1. Chairperson

The Chairperson, to be appointed by the Central Government, should essentially come
from amongst the best Indian/Global professionals with appropriate backgrounds. Given
the transformation agenda, the Chairperson cannot afford any apprenticeship in the basics
and fundamentals of insurance, notwithstanding industry familiarity, as the job delivery
starts from Day 1. The term of office could vary from 5 to 8 years to ensure consistency
and sustained delivery.

2. Whole-time/Part-time Members

The choice of the whole-time / part-time members be left to the Chairman/IRDA Board
to be among the best Indian/Global insurance professionals and not just from among the
public sector organizations. The term of office could vary from 5 to 8 years to ensure
consistency and sustained delivery.

3. “Insurance Contracts Code” for Laws relating to Insurance Contracts

The Insurance Act 2015 of the UK has been hailed as the biggest shake-up of insurance law
in the UK since 1766, which came into force on August 12, 2016. It is also described as a
once-in-a-generation reform of insurance law in the UK. It is heralded as being crucial to
keeping the London insurance market at the very centre of the global stage. The Insurance
Act 2015 is the most significant reform of UK insurance contract law for a century. It’s the
insurance equivalent of pulling down the Berlin wall.

For example, two acts in English law – The Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and
Representations) Act 2012 (‘2012 Act’) in consumer insurance and the Insurance Act 2015
(IA 2015) in non-consumer insurance have made significant changes in keeping with the
changing aspirations of the customers in the UK market. In the past, insurance contracts
were of Utmost Good Faith (uberrimae fidei) as per Section 17 of the Marine Insurance Act
1906. As a result, the insurer and insured needed to deal honestly and transparently during
their contractual relationship. The Duty of Utmost Good Faith had far-reaching consequences,
extending to an insured’s pre-contractual information duty. The remedy of this breach was
the avoidance of the insurance contract itself. Section 2 of the Act 2012 deals with ‘Disclosure
and representations before contract or variation’. Section 2(1) provides information about a
consumer’s disclosure and representations to an insurer before a consumer insurance contract
is entered into or varied. The 2012 Act has removed the pre-contractual duty of disclosure for
consumers with the duty to take reasonable care not to make a misrepresentation. The Act
clarifies whether or not a consumer has taken reasonable care not to make a misrepresentation