44. (1) Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in any contract between any person and any insurance agent providing for the forfeiture or stoppage of payment of renewal commission to such insurance agent, no such person shall, in respect of life insurance business transacted in Bangladesh, refuse payment to an insurance agent of commission due to him on renewal premium under the agreement by reason only of the termination of his agreement, except for fraud: Provided that-(a) such agent ceases to act for the insurer concerned after the Chief Controller of Insurance is satisfied and has conveyed the fact to the insurer and the agent that the circumstances in which the said insurer is placed are such as to justify the agent's ceasing to act for him; or(b) such agent has served the insurer continually and exclusively in respect of life business for not less than three years and has earned a minimum renewal commission of three hundred Taka during the twelve months preceding the date of his ceasing to act as such agent for the insurer. (2) Any commission payable to an insurance agent whether under the provisions of sub-section (1) or otherwise shall, notwithstanding the death of the agent and notwithstanding the provisions in this Act regarding the holding of an insurance agent's licence continue to be payable to his heirs for so long as such commission would have been payable had such insurance agent been alive or in one or more lump sums commuted under sub-section (4): Provided that no commission on renewal premiums shall be paid under this sub-section if the total amount of commission on renewal premiums earned by the insurance agent during the twelve months preceding the date of his death was less than three hundred Taka. (3) For the purposes of sub-section (2) an insurance agent may nominate the person or persons to whom the commission due to him shall be paid in the event of his death: Provided that any such nomination to be effectual shall be communicated to the insurer and registered by him in writing and any such nomination may at any time before the death of the insurance agent, be cancelled or changed by him, but unless a notice in writing of any such cancellation or change has been delivered to the insurer, the insurer shall not be liable for any payment of the commission made bona fide by him to a nominee registered with the insurer: Provided further that the insurer shall furnish to the insurance agent a written acknowledgment of having registered nomination or cancellation or change thereof : Provided also that where the nominee is a minor, it shall be lawful for the insurance agent to appoint any person to receive the commission in the event of his death during the minority of the nominee. (4) If the commission payable to any heir or nominee of a deceased insurance agent under the provisions of sub-section (2) is less than three hundred Taka a year, the insurer shall and in any other case the insurer may, with the consent of the heir or the nominee of the deceased insurance agent, commute such renewal commission and pay the amount or amounts mutually agreed to in lump sum or sums. (5) An insurer may recover out of the commission payable under sub-section (2) any sums owing to the insurer by the insurance agent at the date of his death. (6) In this section, reference to “insurance agent” or “agent” shall be construed as including reference to “employer of agent”, and reference to “commission” shall be construed as including reference to “over-riding commission”.