52. Prohibition of business on dividing principle.- (1) No insurer shall after the commencement of this Act begin, or after three years from that date continue to carry on, any business upon the dividing principle, that is to say, on the principle that the benefit secured by a policy is not fixed but depends either wholly or party on the results of a distribution of certain sums amongst policies becoming claims within certain time limits, or on the principle that the premiums payable by a policy holder depend wholly or partly on the number of policies becoming claims within certain time limits: Provided that nothing in this section shall be deemed to prevent an insurer from allocating bonuses to holders of policies of life insurance as a result of a periodical actuarial valuation either as reversionary additions to the sums insured or as immediate cash bonuses or otherwise: Provided further that an insurer who continues to carry on insurance business on the dividing principle after the commencement of this Act shall withhold from distribution a sum of not less than forty per cent of the premiums received during each year after the commencement of this Act in which such business is continued so as to make up the amount required for investment under Section 27. (2) On the expiry of the period of three years referred to in sub section (1), or on the insurer's ceasing before such expiry but at any time after the commencement of the Insurance (Amendment) Act, 1941 (13 of 1941), to carry on business on the dividing principle, the insurer shall forthwith cause an investigation to be made by an actuary, who shall determine the amount accumulated out of the contributions received from the holders of all policies to which the dividing principle applies and the extent of the claims of those policy holders against the realisable assets of the insurer, and shall, before the expiration of six months from the date on which he is entrusted with the investigation, make recommendations regarding the distribution, whether by cash payment or by the allocation of paid up policies or by a combination of both methods, of such assets as he finds to appertain to such policy holder; and the insurer shall, before the expiry of six months from the date on which the actuary make his recommendations, distribute such assets in accordance with those recommendations. (3) Where at any time prior to the commencement of the Insurance (Amendment) Act, 1941 (13 of 1941), an insurer has to carry on business on the dividing principle, the insurer shall before the expiration of two months from the commencement of that Act, report to the Authority the measures taken or proposed by him for the distribution among holders of policies to which the dividing principle applies of the assets due to them; and the Authority may either sanction such measures or refuse his sanction, and, if he refuses his sanction or if the insurer does not report to him as required by this sub section, the provisions of sub section (2) shall apply to the insurer forthwith. |
