Riot and Civil Commotion Risks Insurance Ordinance, 1947

This 1947 Ordinance set up a government-run insurance scheme covering certain factory property against loss or damage caused by riots and civil commotion. It was enacted as an emergency measure at Partition, using powers under the Government of India Act, 1935, and Section 3 defines the insurable property by reference to a Schedule -- which, in this extract, lists cotton ginning factories, cotton pressing factories, their buildings, and the cotton held in them.

Section 2(4) defines 'Riot and Civil Commotion Risks' broadly: loss or damage (including from resulting fire or explosion) directly caused by rioters, strikers, locked-out workers, or people acting with malicious intent on behalf of a political organisation, as well as damage caused by a lawful authority acting against those same threats. It explicitly excludes damage connected to war or foreign hostilities, damage from a mere work stoppage, and consequential losses like delayed deliveries or lost market opportunities.

Under Section 7, the Federal Government could appoint agents to administer the scheme, and Section 9 allowed the recovery of unpaid insurance premiums as if they were an arrear of land revenue, with a right of appeal to the Federal Government. Section 11 established a dedicated Riot and Civil Commotion Insurance Fund in each province, fed by premiums and payments made when offences under the Ordinance were compounded (settled out of court), from which claims and administrative costs were paid; any shortfall was covered from general government revenue.

Section 12 gave authorised officers the power to demand accounts and documents from insurers or property owners, and to inspect premises, to check compliance -- with penalties of a fine of up to five hundred rupees for obstructing an inspection or refusing information, and up to one thousand rupees for knowingly making a false statement. Section 13 allowed a proportionate refund of premium if property stopped being insurable, but barred any lawsuit against the government for a premium refund after 8 November 1947. Section 14 required Federal Government consent before any prosecution under the Ordinance could be started, and Section 16 shields anyone acting in good faith under the Ordinance from being sued.

Several sections (5, 6, 8 and 10) have already been repealed, and the extract shows this is a very old, largely superseded emergency-era law tied to a specific historical situation (Partition-era communal unrest affecting the cotton industry), amended multiple times since, most recently in substance by the Federal Adaptation of Laws Order, 1975. Anyone encountering this Ordinance today should check whether it remains in force and confirm any figures against the current official text.