OFFICE OF THE DISTRICT CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL FORUM, KAMRUP,GUWAHATI-03
C.C.27/2015
Present:-
1) Md.Sahadat Hussain, A.J.S. - President
2) Smti Archana Deka Lahkar - Member
3) Md Jamatul Islam - Member
Shri Tinkumoni Nath -Complainant
S/O- Shri Jibon Ch Das
R/O- New Guwahati Rly Colony
Qtr No-816/A, Bamuni Maidam, Guwahati
Dist-Kamrup, Assam
-VS-
1) Assistant General Manager -Opp.party
State Bank of India, New Guwahati Branch
Bamuni Maidam, Guwahati
Dist-Kamrup, Assam
Appearance:
Ld advocate Mr Matiur Rahman for the complainant and Ld advocate Mr G. Jalan the opp. party .
Date of argument - 23/05/2018
Date of judgment - 06/06/2018
JUDGMENT
This is a proceeding U/S- 12 of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986
1. The complaint filed by Shri Tinku Moni Nath against Assistant General Manager, State Bank of India, New Guwahati Branch was admitted on 10/04/2015 and notice was served on the opp. party and opp. party filed W/S on 04/08/2015 . The complainant filed his evidence on affidavit on 10/05/2016 and he was cross examined by the opp. party side Ld advocate. One Sri Vinod Sarma filed evidence on affidavit for the opp. party on 19/01/2017 but his evidence was expunged allowing the opp. party to file evidence of Sri Diganta Parasar Goswami and Sri Diganta Parasar Goswami filed his evidence in affidavit and he was also cross examined by the complainant side. In this case both sides Ld counsel filed written argument for their respective parties. Thereafter , on 23/05/2018 we heard oral argument of Ld advocate Matiur Rahman for the complainant and of Ld advocate Mr. G.Jalan for the opp. party and today we deliver the judgment as follows-
2. The complainant case in brief is that on 05/10/2014 he tried to withdraw an amount of Rs.20,000/- through Shew Prasad ATM of SBI but the transaction was not successful but he was surprised to see the ATM statement that Rs.20,000/- was debited from his account and then he waited before the ATM about 30 minutes to receive the amount from the ATM but the ATM did not release the amount and then he made a complaint before Assistant General Manager, State Bank of India,New Guwahati Branch vide Ticket No-AT42914167624 and he received also one message in his mobile on 10/10/2014 that , that transaction was successful , relevant documents sent to his branch; and on receipt of the said message he lodged a complaint again before State Bank of India,New Guwahati Branch which was registered vide Ticket No-429214216413 . He also received a message on 20/10/2015 (transaction is successful) and receiving the said message he lodged a FIR before Paltan Bazar Police Station and also lodged one complaint before the Banking Ombudsman with a request to credit Rs.20,000/- in his account and the said complaint was registered as GUWA/BHG/278/2014 -15 Dtd.05/11/2014 and he also appeared before the ombudsman; and the ombudsman, after hearing both the parties, observed that the transaction appeared to be unsuccessful, and the ombudsman also directed opp. parties to refund the amount to him. For such unfair trade practice, he suffered financial loss, harassment and mental agony; and so he is entitled to Rs.1,50,000/- as compensation from the opp. party.
3.The gist of the pleading of the opp. party is that they had received a complaint from the complainant vide No-AE429141676241 Dtd. 11/10/2014 and also received another complaint vide No-AT429141676241 Dtd 11/10/2014 and they investigated the matter and found that the said transaction was successful . The complainant again registered a complaint vide Ticket No-429214216 413 and after verification they sent message to the complainant that transaction was successful. It is fact that Banking Ombudsman giving benefits of doubt decided to refund the disputed amount to the complainant and they also in good gesture to the customer and respect to the Banking Ombudsman closed the matter to the satisfaction of both the parties. Hence, they committed no deficiency of service to the complainant. The complainant suffered no financial loss as they refunded Rs.20,000/- on the direction of the Ombudsman and they also caused no harassment and mental agony to the complainant.
4.After perusing both sides pleading and evidence it is found that, it is admitted fact that the complainant paid on 05/10/2014, used Shew Prasad ATM for withdrawal of Rs.20,000/- and coded for withdrawing Rs.20,000/- from his account No-10567146565 (SBI, Bamunimaidam Branch of Guwahati ) . The complainant states that the said ATM did not redeem Rs.20,000/- in his favour as he coded but after taking out the ATM statement he saw that Rs.20,000/- was debited from his account i.e. Rs.20,000/- was released in his favour by the said ATM as per his coding; and then he filed complaint before Assistant General Manager,SBI vide Ticket No-AT42914167624 Dtd.11/10/2014 (Exhibit-5) and he, instead of getting any positive result, got message that transaction was successful and then he lodged complaint before New Guwahati Branch,SBI vide Ticket No-429214216413; and without getting any positive result he again got SMS message that transaction was successful; and then he approached Banking Ombudsman filing complaint on 30/10/2014 and the Ombudsman after hearing both sides directed the opp. parties to refund Rs.20,000/- to him observing that the said transaction appeared to be unsuccessful . These statements of the complainant are admitted by the opp. parties. It is also found that the opp. party in their written statement admits that in compliance with the direction of the Banking Ombudsman they paid Rs.20,000/- to the complainant and the complainant also , in his cross examination , admits that he have received Rs.20,000/- as per direction of the Ombudsman as the amount of unsuccessful release of Rs.20,000/- . Thus it is crystal clear that, the opp. party admits that the transaction made by complainant on 05/10/2014 for Rs.20,000/- through Prasad ATM was unsuccessful but due to fault of banking process Rs.20,000/- debited from his account No-10567146565 in State Bank of India, Bamunimaidam , Guwahati . Although said transaction was unsuccessful , it is also found that, after 6 days of said incident he had lodged complaint before Assistant General Manager, State Bank of India,New Guwahati Branch requesting him to refund Rs.20,000/- which was wrongly debited from his account but opp. party bank did not refund that amount in due time and they have refunded Rs.20,000/- to the complainant after passing the award by the ombudsman , i.e. after 19/11/2014, meaning thereby they have delayed 1 month and 8 days in refunding the disputed amount.
The Reserve bank of India vide Notification Memo No-RBI/2010/11/547 (DPSS P.D. No-2632/02.11.002/2010-11 dtd.27/05/2011instructed all the commercial banks to dispose of the complaint of failed transaction at ATM within 7 working days of receipt of the complaint and failure to re-credit the disputed amount in the account of the customer within 7 working days ofreceipt of the complaint shall entail payment of compensation to the customer @Rs.100/- per day by the issuing bank . In our case in hand, it is found that the opp. party bank should have disposed of the complaint filed by the complainant between 11/10/2014 and 16/10/2014 and to recredit the amount within that period, but they have delayed 32 days in recrediting the amount to the account of the complainant and therefore as per above said notification of the Reserve Bank, they are liable to pay compensation @Rs.100/- per day and therefore they are liable to pay the complainant Rs.3200/- as compensation for delaying in recrediting the said amount. It is found that the actof non payment of the compensation as per guidelines of the Reserve Bank of India is an act of deficiency of service towards the complainant . Therefore , they are to pay the compensation of Rs.5000/-. Secondly, for the fault of the opp. party the complainant has to prosecute the opp. party before this forum by incurring expenditure of paying fees to his attendance in this forum. So, we are of opinion that the opp. party is liable to pay atleast Rs.10,000/- as cost of the proceeding .
5. Closing our discussion as above, we hold that the complaint has merit and the complainant has succeeded to prove his case against the opp. party . Therefore , the complaint is allowed on contest and the opp. party is directed to pay Rs.3,200/- as compensation for causing delay in recrediting Rs.20,000/- in the account of the complainant and also to pay him Rs.5,000/- as compensation for causing deficiency of service and Rs.10,000/- as cost of the proceeding. . The opp. party is directed to satisfy the award within 45 days, in default , the other amounts shall also carry interest at the rate of 12% per annum from this day.
Given under our hands and seal today on this 6th June, 2018.
(Smt Archana Deka Lahkar) (Md.Jamatul Islam) (Md.Sahadat Hussain)
Member Member President
