No. 8/20.10.2011.

HON’BLE JUSTICE SRI PRABIR KUMAR SAMANTA, PRESIDENT.

Appellant is present through Ld. Advocate.  This appeal is by the HDFC Bank Ltd. against the judgement and order of the Forum below thereby allowing the complaint by directing the Appellant to pay Rs.10,000/- for deficiency of service and another for Rs.10,000/- towards compensation for causing undue harassment and mental agony to the Complainant and a further sum of Rs.2,000/- by way of litigation cost.

The facts are simple.  The Complainant is an account holder and at the relevant point of time while he had balance of Rs.15,965/- in his account he issued a cheque for Rs.9,361/- which had bounced.  Thereafter, on the same date the said cheque was further cleared after deduction of Rs.350/- as the charges on the allegation that the Complainant did not have sufficient balance in his account.  In the complaint case a plea has been taken by the Appellant – Bank that the said cheque for Rs.9,361/- had bounced because the bank transferred an amount from the said account of the Complainant towards settlement of the outstanding dues of the credit card held by the Complainant.  Be that as it may, from the materials on record namely the ATM transaction slips it is evident that on the date on which the said cheque for Rs.9,361/- was issued by the Complainant there was existing balance in the said account to the tune of Rs.15,965/-.  Most interestingly the bounced cheque had not been returned to the Complainant at any point of time by stating that he had insufficient balance in his said account.  Furthermore if there by any transfer of any amount from his said account towards settlement of the outstanding dues of the credit card held by the Complainant, such fact was also never informed to the Complainant.  For the reasons as aforesaid the deficiency of service by the Appellant – Bank was rampant for which the impugned judgement and order cannot be said to have been made illegally and/or with any irregularity.  The judgement of the Forum below is accordingly affirmed.  The appeal is dismissed.