THE PRESIDENT

DISTRICT CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL COMMISSION

WEST TRIPURA : AGARTALA

 

CASE No. CC- 73  of  2020

 

Smt. Sima Das, 

W/O- Sri Animesh Das,

Dhaleswar Road No.1, Agartala,

P.O. Dhaleswar, P.S. East Agartala, 

West Tripura. ….…...................Complainant.

 

-VERSUS-

 

1. Axis Bank Ltd. 

Branch Manager, Axis Bank Ltd.,

Dhaleswar Branch, Joyguru Stand,

P.O. Dhaleswar, P.S. East Agartala,

Agartala, District- West Tripura.

 

2. Chairman,

Axis Bank Ltd.

Registered Office, 

'Trishul' 3rd Floor, 

Opp.  Samartheswar Temple, 

Near Law Garden, Ellisbridge, 

Ahmedabad-380006. …..................Opposite Parties.

 

 

     __________PRESENT__________

 

 SRI RUHIDAS PAL

PRESIDENT,

  DISTRICT CONSUMER  

DISPUTES REDRESSAL COMMISSION

      WEST TRIPURA, AGARTALA. 

 

Dr (SMT) BINDU PAL

MEMBER,

  DISTRICT CONSUMER 

DISPUTES REDRESSAL COMMISSION

  WEST TRIPURA,  AGARTALA.

 

SRI SAMIR GUPTA,

MEMBER,

  DISTRICT CONSUMER 

DISPUTES REDRESSAL COMMISSION

  WEST TRIPURA,  AGARTALA.

 

 

C O U N S E L

 

For the Complainant : Miss Somdutta Das,

  Constituted Attorney.

        

For the O.P. : Smt. Pushpita Chakraborty,

  Learned Advocate.

 

 

 

JUDGMENT  DELIVERED  ON  :  11.05.2022

 

J U D G M E N T

 

1. The case arose being the complaint filed by Smt. Seema Das, wife of Sri Animesh Das resident of Dhaleswar, Agartala U/S 12 of the Consumer protection Act 1986 against Axis Bank, Dhaleswar Branch, Agartala for illegal and unauthorized deduction of charges, for holding credit card and its operation, from her savings bank account bearing no- 916010026534603. The complainant has rendered an authorization to her daughter namely Somdutta Das for representing and pleading her case.

 

2. The averment, of the case, in brief, is that the complainant Smt. Das is holding a Savings Bank Account bearing no-916010026534603 with the Axis Bank, Dhaleswar Branch, Agartala. She alleged that an amount of Rs.283/- and Rs.356.57/- have been debited from her SB Account, as being a charge of processing credit card with the bank. She claimed that she did not hold any credit card or nor had she applied for any credit card whatsoever with the bank and charging the amount towards credit card is not justifiable. She reached out to the customer service centre of the Axis Bank with her grievances but was not offered any adequate redressal of her grievances. On being not received any remedy measure from the bank concerned to settle her issue and grievances. She prayed to the bank seeking closure of her savings bank account bearing no- 916010026534603 on 25.02.2020. But the bank put forward, interalia, a condition to deactivate the credit card and signed some documents in relation to closure of credit card which was not complied by her as her contention was that she never availed the facility of credit card. Thereafter the complainant noticed that an amount of Rs.1111.07, which includes an amount as lien marked for Rs.481.32 had been deducted from her SB A/C,  which according to her has again an unfair trade practice being adopted by the bank. She served demand notice on 31.01.2020 but her grievance were remained unsettled. Thereafter, this case is filed with this commission seeking redress of her grievances to get the deducted amount back and a compensation of Rs.1 lac.

 

3. The Axis Bank, Dhaleswar Branch contested the case by opposing the submission, made by the complainant with a contention that the complainant was issued a credit card and, therefore, there is no point in reversing the amount, as claimed for.

 

4. Now, the points, to be decided for deciding the case are as follows:-

(i) Whether there has been any deficiency in service committed by the O.P. towards the complainant by deducting the charge towards credit card?

(ii) If so, whether the complainant is entitled to get the compensation as prayed for?

  (iii) To what extent the complainant is entitled to have the compensation?

 

5. The complainant filed examination in chief of her on affidavit and she is also examined. She also submitted some documents which are marked as Exhibit- 1 Series. Evidence in the form of affidavit of one Sri Dipankar Debnath, Branch Manager, Axis Bank, Dhaleswar Branch, Agartala has been filed by the O.P.

 

6. Written arguments have been submitted by the complainant as well as the O.P., the Axis Bank, Dhaleswar Branch, Agartala.

 

7. The complainant submitted a petition depicting additional information and clarifications on some points raised by the O.P. The complainant apprised the Commission that, meanwhile, she took up issue with the Ombudsmen of Axis Bank Ltd. by lodging a complaint mentioning her grievances. In consequence to that the good office of the Ombudsmen of Axis Bank has partially redressed her grievances, by owing a regret to the complainant and cancelling the disputed credit card and reverted back the charges of Rs.1950/-, as being deducted by the Axis Bank Dhaleswar Branch. The complainant prayed for redressal of the rest grievances in the form of allegedly illegal deduction of charges of Rs.1111.07.

 

8. We heard both sides and decided that subsequently to the partial redresssal offered by the Ombudsmen of the Axis bank, it establishes that there was negligence on the part of the O.P. bank in respect of deduction, as affected by them, over being a charge of processing/holding the credit card facility by the complainant. So the Commission does not require to interfere further on the part of the complainant which have been settled by the Ombudsmen.

 

9. A petition for closure of her SB account has been filed to O.P. bank by the complainant on 22.02.2022 but the O.P. bank imposed a condition to deactivate the credit card and signed some documents related to credit card does not hold good and appears to be quite contrary to the judgment provided by the Ombudsmen of the O.P. bank. Now, the deduction charges of Rs.1111.07 is unwarranted and unjustified because of the reason that had the prayer for closure of the account been accepted by the bank and allowed the bank account to be closed during the time the aggregating charges Rs.1111.07(which includes an amount marked as lien) would not have been required to be deducted/blocked from the account and such act on the part of the O.P. bank is tantamount to deficiency of service. 

 

10. Considering the above facts of the matter, we are of the opinion that the complainant is entitled to get the refund of Rs.629.75 from the O.P. bank further, the complainant is entitled to make use of lien amount of Rs.481.32. The complainant is also entitled to get compensation for the harassment being subjected during the course of entire period of dispute and thereby the mental agony and pain sustained by the complainant.

     

11. We therefore, direct the O.P. bank to refund the amount of Rs.629.75 and repeal the marked lien to free the amount Rs.481.32 in favour of the complainant along with a compensation of Rs.10,000/- for causing mental agony and pain to the complainant and a litigation cost of Rs.2,000/-. The amount  has to be paid by the O.P. within 45 days from the date of this order, failing which  the amount shall carry interest @ 9% P.A. till the realization of the entire amount.

 

12. Hence the case is disposed of.  

Supply a certified copy of the judgment to both the parties free of cost. 

 

Announced.

 

 

SRI R. PAL

PRESIDENT, 

DISTRICT CONSUMER  

DISPUTES REDRESSAL COMMISSION,

WEST TRIPURA, AGARTALA. 

 

 

 

Dr (SMT) B. PAL

MEMBER,

  DISTRICT CONSUMER 

DISPUTES REDRESSAL COMMISSION, 

  WEST TRIPURA,  AGARTALA.

 

SAMIR GUPTA,

MEMBER,

  DISTRICT CONSUMER 

DISPUTES REDRESSAL COMMISSION

  WEST TRIPURA,  AGARTALA.