DISTRICT CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL FORUM
SOUTH 24 – PARGANAS,
AMANTRAN BAZAR, BARUIPUR, KOLKATA-700 144
C.C. CASE NO. 399 OF 2013
DATE OF FILING: 1.10.2013 DATE OF JUDGEMENT: 30.7.2019
Present : President : Ananta Kumar Kapri
Member : Jhunu Prasad
COMPLAINANT : Smt. Anita Basu, wife of Tapan Basu , C/o Ratan
Bhattacharjee of Vill. Subhash Gram, Near Nabatara School, Sukanta Sarani, Kolkata-147.
O.P/O.Ps : 1. The Branch Manager, UCO Bank, Baruipur Branch,
Kachari Bazar, P.S Baruipur, Dist. South 24-Parganas.
2. The General Manager, UCO Bank (Head Office),
Brabourne Road, Kolkata-700 001.
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JUDGMENT
Sri Ananta Kumar Kapri, President
This case was once disposed of finally on 27.2.2014 and the O.P Bank preferred an appeal before the Hon’ble State Commission being F.A/352/2014, wherein the Hon’ble State Commission was pleased to set aside the final order passed by this Forum and also directed to this Forum to adjudicate afresh after hearing of both parties and having a verification report about the disputed withdrawal slip by a Government Hand Writing Expert at the cost of the O.P. Accordingly, the report of Government Hand Writing expert has been received and the parties have been heard on the matter. Now, the deck is all clear for writing judgment.
Facts leading to the filing of the instant case may be set forth in a nutshell as follows.
The complainant has a savings bank account bearing no. 01990110022344 maintained with O.P-1. On 24.8.2012, she went to O.p-1/Bank for updating her passbook and after having the passbook updated, she came to know that an amount of Rs.40,000/- was withdrawn from her account by some unknown persons. She personally met with O.P-1 and requested him i.e O.P-1 to return the amount to her account. But the O.P Bank lent no ear, as goes the allegation of the complainant to her grievance and, therefore, the complainant has filed the instant case ,praying for passing an order directing the O.P/Bank to refund the aforesaid amount and also to pay a sum of Rs.40,000/- as compensation etc. Hence, this case.
O.P nos. 1 and 2 have been contesting the case by filing written version, wherein it is contended inter alia that the said money i.e Rs.40,000/- was withdrawn from the account of the complainant on 24.8.2012 by none but the complainant herself. The complainant deposited a withdrawal slip with the bank with her passbook, as the cheque book provided to the complainant got exhausted. So, according to them, the complainant has filed a false and fictitious case and, therefore, the case should be dismissed in limini with cost.
Upon the averments of the parties, the following points are formulated for consideration.
POINT FOR DETERMINATION
- Are the O.Ps guilty of deficiency in service as alleged by the complainant?
- Is the complainant entitled to get relief or reliefs, if any, as prayed for?
EVIDENCE OF THE PARTIES
Both the parties have led evidence on affidavit and all these are kept in the record. Questionnaires, Replies and BNA filed by the parties are also kept in the record after consideration.
DECISION WITH REASONS
Point no.1 & 2 :
The main allegation of the complainant is that money has been withdrawn unauthorisedly by an unknown person from her account on 24.8.2012. According to her, had the bank authority taken proper precaution ,unauthorised withdrawal of money from her account would not have taken place. It is due to sheer negligence and deficiency in service, as goes the submission of the complainant . Money was siphoned away from her account illegally and ,therefore, she is entitled to get return of the money from the bank.
According to the submission of the bank authority, it is the complainant who withdrew money from her account and the money was withdrawn by the complainant by submission of withdrawal slip.
In the light of submission and counter submission of the parties as referred to above, the Forum is now saddled with heavy task of ascertaining the actual truth of the matter. The Forum will have to see whether the complainant herself withdrew the money from her account or someone else withdrew said money from her account. In its search for the truth of the matter, the Forum sent the relevant papers to hand writing expert. The disputed withdrawal slip whereby the complainant has allegedly withdrawn the money on 24.8.2012 , the admitted withdrawal slips whereby the complainant withdrew money prior to 24.8.2012 and the specimen signatures of the complainant all were sent to the Hand Writing Expert ,seeking report from the said expert as to whether the signature of the complainant on disputed withdrawal slip corresponds with her admitted signature and specimen signatures. The report is received from Hand Writing Expert and the opinion of the Hand Writing Expert is quoted as hereunder:-
OPINION
“The documents of this case have been carefully and thoroughly examined.
The person who wrote the blue enclosed signatures stamped and marked S1 to S6 and A1 to A23 also wrote the red enclosed signatures similarly stamped and marked Q1 to Q3”.
Signatures marked as S1 to S6 by the Hand Writing Expert are specimen signatures of the complainant and signatures marked A1 to A23 are the admitted signatures of the complainant. Signatures marked Q1 to Q3 are disputed signatures of the complainant. Regards being had to all these, it is now crystal clear that the sample signatures and admitted signatures of the complainant squarely correspond to the disputed signature and from this fact it stands undoubtedly established that the withdrawal slip bears the signature of the complainant. It stands established from this fact that it is none but the complainant who withdrew money i.e Rs.40,000/- on 24.8.2012 from her account.
So, it is found that complaint filed by the complainant is a false one and, therefore, the complainant is not entitled to relief as prayed for.
In the result, the case fails.
Hence,
ORDERED
That the complaint case be and the same is dismissed on contest against the O.Ps with a cost of Rs.5,000/- to be paid by the complainant to the O.Ps.
Registrar-In-Charge of this Forum is directed to send a copy of the judgment free of cost at once to the parties concerned by speed post.
President
I / We agree
Member
Dictated and corrected by me
President
