Punjab

Faridkot

CC/16/251

Sukhchain Singh - Complainant(s)

Versus

Allahabad Bank - Opp.Party(s)

Dinesh Jindal

08 May 2017

ORDER

 DISTRICT CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL FORUM, FARIDKOT

Complaint No. :         251

Date of Institution :    6.09.2016

Date of Decision :       8.05.2017

Sukhchain Singh, aged about 58 years s/o Hardeep Singh r/o Village Rorikapura, Jaitu, Tehsil Jaitu, District Faridkot.

.....Complainant

Versus

 

1. Allahabad Bank, Kotkapura Road, Near Main Bus Stand, Jaitu, Tehsil Jaitu, District Faridkot through its Branch Manager/Authorised Person.
2. Allahabad Bank, Zonal Office : SCO-90, District Shopping Centre, Block-B, First Floor, Ranjit Avenue, Amritsar-143001 through its Zonal Chairman/Authorised Person.
3. Allahabad Bank, Head & Regd Office, 2, N S Road, Kolkata-700001 through its Chairman/ Managing Director/Director /General Manager/ Manager/ Authorised Person.

......OPs

Complaint under Section 12 of the

Consumer Protection Act, 1986.

 

Quorum:     Sh Ajit Aggarwal, President,

Sh P Singla, Member.

Present:       Sh Dinesh Jindal, Ld Counsel for Complainant,

 Sh Vivek Goyal, Ld Counsel for OPs.

ORDER

(Ajit Aggarwal, President)

                               Complainant has filed the present complaint under Section 12 of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 against OPs seeking directions to OPs to deposit Rs.15,000/-in the account of complainant and for further directing them to pay Rs.10,000/-as compensation for harassment and mental agony suffered by him besides Rs.5,500/-as litigation expenses to complainant.

2                                   Briefly stated, the case of the complainant is that complainant is having a Kisan Cash Credit limit of Rs.3,30,000/-with Ops Bank for about 4 years and he has been paying all the charges, cost and interest as per rules and regulations of Ops. It is submitted that when complainant went to Ops bank to clear the limit of his account and asked about detail of balance amount, he was surprised to see that Ops deducted Rs.3,30,000/-from his account. He requested them that he has to give only Rs.3,15,000/- as he never withdrew Rs.15,000/-from Ops Bank on 29.05.2015. Complainant  approached     Manager  of  Ops Bank but  Manager  also did  not respond  to   his   request.    It is further submitted by  complainant that  on 29.05.2015, he was not  available in Jaitu and was accompanied by his friend Shaminder Singh with  his younger brother Jaspal Singh at village Sat PB Chak, District Bikaner,  Rajasthan to meet the sister of his friend, who is married over there and                                                          both he and his brother were there in Rajasthan and thus, there is no possibility of complainant withdrawing the amount of Rs.15,000/-from his account at Jaitu as one person can not be at two places on same day. Complainant approached many times to Ops alongwith his relatives, near and dear ones and some persons of his village to redress his grievance, but Ops refused to listen his requests and lingered on the matter on one pretext or the other. Complainant also approached EO Wing, Faridkot and SSP, Faridkot to enquire about his matter, but that also bore no fruit. Complainant further made many requests to Ops to refund his Rs.15,000/-but they refused to pay any heed to his request and misbehaved with him. All this amounts to deficiency in service and unfair trade practice. Complainant has also prayed for compensation and litigation expenses along with main relief. Hence, the complaint.

3                                         Ld Counsel for complainant was heard with regard to admission of the complaint and vide order dated 20.09.2016, complaint was admitted and notice was ordered to be issued to the opposite party.

4                        On receipt of the notice, OPs filed written statement          taking preliminary objections that present complaint is misconceived, groundless and unsustainable and is baseless as complainant has no locus standi to file the present complaint. Allegations levelled by complainant and his brother in another complaint are false, vexatious and are concocted ones. It is averred that both complainant and his brother have Kisan Cash Credit Limit with Ops bank and on 27.05.2015, both of them visited their bank and presented duly filled and signed vouchers and made request for withdrawal of Rs.15,000/-each, which were duly stamped and numbered as 3-2303815 and 3-2357518 (Sukhchain Singh and Jaspal Singh respectively) dated 27.05.2015 by the employee of bank and thereafter, they withdrew that amount. Thereafter, again on 29.05.2015, the complainant and his brother Jaspal Singh came to the branch Jaitu and both presented  duly filed and signed vouchers, which were then numbered and stamped as 3-1221693 and 3-1245765 dated 29.05.2015 (Sukhchain Singh and Jaspal Singh respectively) and both complainant and his brother withdrew the amount of Rs.15,000/-each and now they are denying that they made any withdrawal on 29.05.2015. It is asserted that both complainant and his brother are trying to extract benefit from bank by levelling false allegations and by concocting false stories. However, on merits, Ops have denied all the allegations levelled by complainant being wrong and incorrect and averred that they never forced complainant to enhance his cash credit limit, rather complainant himself raised his limit from 3 lacs to 3,30,000/-. All the other allegations are a result of afterthought and are concocted only to extract undue advantage from OPs. It is further averred that there is no deficiency in service or unfair trade practice on the part of answering OPs. All other allegations and the allegation with regard to relief sought too were refuted with a prayer that complaint may be dismissed with costs.

5                                   Parties wanted to lead evidence to prove their respective pleadings and proper opportunity was given to them. The complainant tendered in evidence his affidavit Ex.C-1 and documents Ex C-2 to C-10 and then, closed his evidence.

6                                 In order to rebut the evidence of the complainant, Counsel for OP tendered in evidence affidavit of Vidyadhar Nain as Ex OP-3 and documents Ex OP-1 and 2 and then, closed the evidence.

7                                                    We have heard learned counsel for parties and have very carefully perused the affidavits & documents placed on the file by complainant as well as opposite party.

8                                             Ld Counsel for complainant argued that complainant is having a Kisan Cash Credit limit of Rs.3,30,000/-with Ops Bank for about 4 years and he has been paying all the charges, cost and interest as per rules and regulations of Ops. Further submitted that when complainant went to Ops bank to clear the limit of his account and asked about detail of balance amount, he was surprised to see that Ops deducted Rs.3,30,000/-from his account on ground that complainant withdrew Rs.15,000/-from his account on 29.05.2015. He requested them that he has to give only Rs.3,15,000/- as he never withdrew Rs.15,000/-from Ops Bank on 29.05.2015, but they did not listen. Complainant approached Manager, but he also did not respond to his request. It is further submitted that on 29.05.2015, he was not in available in Jaitu and was accompanied by his friend Shaminder Singh with his younger brother Jaspal Singh at village Sat PB Chak, District Bikaner, Rajasthan to meet his friend’s sister, who is married over there and both he and his brother were there in Rajasthan and thus, there is no possibility of complainant withdrawing the amount of Rs.15,000/-from his account at Jaitu as one person can not be at two places on same day. Complainant approached many times to Ops alongwith his relatives, near and dear ones and some persons of his village to redress his grievance, but Ops refused to listen his requests and lingered on the matter on one pretext or the other. Complainant also approached EO Wing, Faridkot and SSP, Faridkot to enquire about his matter, but that also bore no fruit. Complainant further made many requests to Ops to refund his Rs.15,000/-but they refused to pay any heed to his request and misbehaved with him. All this amounts to deficiency in service and has caused financial loss and harassment to complainant. He has prayed for accepting the present complaint alongwith compensation and litigation expenses.

9                                       To controvert the arguments of complainant counsel, ld counsel for OP argued that there is no deficiency in service on the part of answering OPs. OPs argued that complainant has no locus standi to file the present complaint as all the allegations levelled by complainant and his brother in another complaint are false, vexatious and are concocted ones. It is averred that both complainant and his brother have Kisan Cash Credit Limit with Ops bank and on 27.05.2015, both of them visited their bank and presented duly filled and signed vouchers and made request for withdrawal of Rs.15,000/-each, which were duly stamped and numbered as 3-2303815 and 3-2357518 (Sukhchain Singh and Jaspal Singh respectively) dated 27.05.2015 by the employee of bank and thereafter, they withdrew that amount. Thereafter, again on 29.05.2015, the complainant and his brother Jaspal Singh came to the branch Jaitu and both presented  duly filed and signed vouchers, which were then numbered and stamped as 3-1221693 and 3-1245765 dated 29.05.2015 (Sukhchain Singh and Jaspal Singh respectively) and both complainant and his brother withdrew the amount of Rs.15,000/-each and now they are denying that they made any withdrawal on 29.05.2015. It is asserted that both complainant and his brother are trying to extract benefit from bank by levelling false allegations and by concocting false stories. Ops have never forced complainant to enhance his cash credit limit, rather complainant himself raised his limit from 3 lacs to 3,30,000/-by making request to OPs. All the other allegations are a result of afterthought and are concocted only to extract undue advantage from OPs. It is further averred that there is no deficiency in service or unfair trade practice on the part of answering OPs. Ops made prayer for dismissal of complaint.

10                                 It is observed that case of the complainant is that he has cash credit limit for Rs.3,30,000/-and when he went to clear the limit amount in bank, he was shocked to see the detail of account statement that Ops deducted Rs.15,000/-on the ground that complainant withdrew this amount from bank on 29.05.2015. As per complainant he made last transaction with bank on 27.05.2015 and thereafter he did not withdrew any amount from the bank. To prove his case, complainant alleged that on 29.05.2015 he was not in Jaitu as he was away at Rajasthan alongwith his brother to accompany his friend to his sister’s place, who is married over there and thus, he cannot be available at two places at one time. Repeated requests made by him to Ops for refunding the excess amount debited by them bore no fruit. Even he approached Ops alongwith relatives, friends, near and dear ones and with some respectable of village to make them to request refund his Rs.15,000/-, but all in vain, which amounts to deficiency in service and caused harassment to him. In reply,  Ops have denied all the allegations of complainant being wrong and incorrect and asserted that complainant himself visited the bank on 29.05.2015 alongwith his brother and both of them presented duly filled, and signed voucher for Rs.15,000/-each and thereafter, these vouchers were then numbered and stamped as 3-1221693 and 3-1245765 dated 29.05.2015 (Sukhchain Singh and Jaspal Singh respectively) and both complainant and his brother withdrew the amount of Rs.15,000/-each and now they are denying that they made any withdrawal on 29.05.2015.

11                                               We have carefully gone through the case and from the perusal of evidence produced by respective parties, it is observed that voucher dated 29.05.2015 bears the signature of complainant and there is no difference in his signatures at other vouchers. Moreover, complainant has not challenged his signatures on the voucher date d29.05.2015. Version of the complainant is that on 29.05.2015, he was not in Jaitu and on that day he was accompanied by his friend Shaminder Singh with his younger brother Jaspal Singh at village Sat PB Chak, District Bikaner, Rajasthan to meet and see his friend’s sister, who is married over there. As he was not available on 29.05.2015 at Jaitu, therefore, he cannot visit Bank and withdraw this amount. To prove this fact that he was not present at Jaitu, he produced affidavit of one Raja Singh s/o Sarban Singh r/o 5PB, Teh Pugal, District Bikaner as Ex C-10, who narrated a fresh story another than the version narrated by complainant in his pleadings. In his affidavit Raja Singh has submitted that he is a resident of village 5PB and complainant has some agriculture land in that village which is given by complainant to him on lease and from 28.05.2015 to 30.05.2015 the complainant was with him in village 5PB District Bikaner for taking care of his land and to meet Raja Singh. now, there are two stories regarding absence of complainant from Jaitu : one is narrated by complainant in complaint pleading that on that day he was accompanied by his friend Shaminder Singh with his younger brother Jaspal Singh at village Sat PB Chak, District Bikaner, Rajasthan to meet and see his friend’s sister, who is married over there and the another one is narrated by Raja Singh stating that on that day, complainant was with him at village 5PB Chak to see his land and to meet him. Both these stories are contradictory to each other. Moreover, complainant has not dared to produce Shaminder Singh with whom he went to see his sister. As such, complainant has failed to prove that on 29.05.2015, he was not in Jaitu and had gone to Rajasthan. It seems that all these stories are concocted ones and are afterthought. Therefore, from the above discussion and in the light of arguments advanced by parties, this Forum is of considered view that complainant has failed to prove his case and therefore, complaint in hand is hereby dismissed being devoid of any merits. However, in peculiar circumstances of the case, there are no orders as to costs. Copy of the order be supplied to parties free of costs as per law. File be consigned to record room.

Announced in open Forum:

Dated: 8.05.2017

Member                          President                        (P  Singla)                      (Ajit Aggarwal)