Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) Chairman S K Roy is said to have asked the government to relieve him of his duties from June 29 this year. He took charge as chairman of the country's largest insurer on the same date in 2013 for a five-year term. The reasons for his resignation are not known. The approval of his request for being relieved of his duties will be subject to the consent of the Cabinet Committee on Appointments. A source close to the development said he had sent the request, and the government would take a call on this. In the recent past, there has not been any instance of LIC chairmen stepping down before the completion of their tenure. However, prior to 1985, there was one case of a chairman taking voluntary retirement, according to former LIC officials. Roy joined LIC in 1981 as a direct recruit officer. Under his chairmanship, LIC saw rejig in products and had a revamp, with the traditional product guidelines by the regulator leading to almost all of its products in the market. This led to a big drop in new business premium collections for LIC, post which the insurer managed to see a growth in first-year premia by launching new products. According to provisional data from the Life Insurance Council, the collection of new premia was Rs 1.38 lakh crore for FY16, compared to Rs 1.13 lakh crore in FY15. Here, LIC posted a 25 per cent growth in first-year premia and collected Rs 97,674 crore in FY16, compared to FY15. Private insurers saw an 18 per cent growth and collected premia of Rs 40,983 crore.