In the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, Hooghly, At Chinsurah.
Case No. CC/94/2020.
Date of filing: 18/02/2020. Date of Final Order: 30/11/2023.
Sandeep Kumar Sen,
s/o Sunil Kr. Sen,
r/o Old Kapasdanga, Pankhatuly, P.S. Chinsurah,
P.O. & Dist. Hooghly, PIN. 712103. ……complainant
vs -
- Branch Manager,
Axix Bank, Chinsurah Branch.
- Axix Bank,
Chinsurah Branch,
Office at- Pipulpati More, , P.S. Chinsurah,
P.O. & Dist. Hooghly, PIN. 712103.…….opposite parties
Before: President, Shri Debasish Bandyopadhyay.
Member, Babita Chaudhuri.
FINAL ORDER/JUDGEMENT
Presented by:-
Shri Debasish Bandyopadhyay, President.
Brief fact of this case:- This case has been filed U/s. 35 of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 by the complainant stating that on 09.06.2020 an unknown person called the complainant’s wife on her mobile phone no.9804227981 and introduced himself as Mr. Roy and posed himself as an Airtel Customer Care personnel and he asked about paying a ‘Refund ‘that the complainant’s wife was entitled to receive as it was due to her mobile number, and offered to ‘Refund ‘the said amount of Rs.150 to the petitioner’s wife and enquired about the details of the refund. Be it mentioned here that the complainant’s wife had called the Airtel customer care service on previous occasion some 15 days back for obtaining the said refund. The Airtel customer care executive, who was a female on previous occasion, assured the complainant’s wife that her refund will be given and that someone from the customer care would call her later and initiate the refund. The aforesaid Mr. Roy called on the complainant wife’s Airtel mobile number on that day late in the afternoon at about 01:50 posing as an Airtel Customer care executive and the said fraudster called via Mob. No.8101966869 on the complainant’s wife’s mobile number at first but as a regular housewife she was busy with preparation of lunch for her infant child and old mother-in-law and since her mobile (iphone) was also showing low battery she asked him to call her later but the said fraudster @Mr. Roy disturbed her and insisted her over and over on calling over a family members number citing it as Airtel company’s Rule and astonishingly he even mentioned this complainant’s mobile number-7003445878 as he said it was showing on his “SYSTEM” as family member’s number and hence she said that the above said phone no.7003445878 belonged to her husband i.e. the present complainant and the fraudster replied that he shall initiate the refund in this Jio number of the complainant. The Jio Mobile no.7003445878 of the petitioner is linked to the petitioner’s savings bank A/c no.911010034881932 which is with the aforesaid bank. The said fraudster surprisingly did not disconnected the call of complainant’s wife but he also did not call on the complainant’s Jio mobile number and just asked her to open the complainant’s internet connection on his phone. The Petitioner’s wife just had the entire conversation for less than a minute with the said fraudster however the petitioner was taking his daily bath during that time and his mobile was lying with his wife for emergency call and other purposes and he had already kept the mobile data/ net connection “Active” and it has mentioned that as he requires it for his work and family related matters his mobile data is always kept active and thereafter the fraudster somehow hacked the petitioner’s mobile phone or may be the “Axix Mobile App” and stole his bank details and siphoned off the below noted amount:
- Credit card no. 530562-219329683.
Amount – i) Rs. 41,533/-, ii) Rs. 29,377/-.
- Debit card no. 4691980104387971.
Amount – i) Rs. 40,520/-.
All of these above said amounts were stolen from the complainant’s account approximately at the same tie between 01:52 pm and 02:02 pm on 9.6.2020 from the petitioner’s aforesaid Debit Card attached to his savings account and credit card. The complainant wants to categorically state that during this whole period neither the complainant nor his wife have shared any bank or other financial details with this fraudster as because the complainant’s wife had already disconnected her phone within less than a minutes conversation, after receiving the information of the previously mentioned “Airtel Refund” but still the fraudsters somehow hacked the complainant’s above said account details by some illegal means and illegally generated a number of OTPs for both Debit and Credit cards and defrauded the petitioner of such huge sum of money.
The complainant’s wife realized the fraud being committed when she saw that the complainant’s mobile was showing OTP messages and SMS being received continuously from the bank’s end informing that such sums are being spent on the petitioner’s said cards at an unknown merchant site named Housing.Com even though at that time she was having no conversation on her mobile number either with the fraudster or anybody else or that the fraudster never called the complainant’s Jio mobile number and soon she rushed to call the complainant who instantly realized that the miscreants are hacking his mobile phone and he readily disconnected his mobile data on his phone and switched it off and rushed to the nearest Axix bank, Chinsurah Branch to inform the local branch office and the banking authorities lodged a written complaint with the bank. Sitting at the bank’s branch the complainant blocked his debit and credit cards then and there and also lodged a complaint with the bank by calling the Axix bank customer care via no. 18604195555, wherein the complainant learnt that a complaint on fraud can only be lodged through the Axix bank customer care service only be telephonically and the bank branch offices has no authority over complaints of such nature and therein the complainant was given credit card compliant no. 60985955 and debit card complaint no. 609886330 from the Axix bank customer care and also diarized the matters with Chinsurah police station vide GDE no. 441 dt. 9.6.2020 just after visiting the bank office and on that very date after visiting the bank and local police station went to the local IT Cell of Chinsurah P.S. for lodging a formal complaint but the officers sitting there informed that they had no authority to take any FIR regarding this matters and they can receive information and issue “Service Request” and they did the same however there were no fruitful result till date and thereafter after much antics of the local police they also registered a proper FIR being Chinsurah P.S. Case No. 185/2020 dt. 26.06.2020 that was well within time.
Complainant filed the complaint petition praying direction upon the opposite parties to pay a sum of Rs. 1,11,430/- along with 18% interest and to pay a sum of Rs. 80,00,000/- towards physical strain and mental agony and to pay a sum of Rs. 18,88,570/- towards litigation cost and to reinstated his savings account and allied debit card dealings in its former state and to reinstate his credit card dealings in its former state and to reinstate his credit ratings to its former state and to reinstate all other dealings with the bank in its former state and to give any other relief as deem fit and proper.
Issues/points for consideration
On the basis of the pleading of the parties, the District Commission for the interest of proper and complete adjudication of this case is going to adopt the following points for consideration:-
- Whether the complainant is the consumer of the opposite parties or not?
- Whether this Forum/ Commission has territorial/pecuniary jurisdiction to entertain and try the case?
- Is there any cause of action for filing this case by the complainant?
- Whether there is any deficiency of service on the part of the opposite parties?
- Whether the complainant is entitled to get relief which has been prayed by the complainant in this case or not?
Evidence on record
The complainant filed evidence on affidavit which is nothing but replica of complaint petition and supports the averments of the complainant in the complaint petition.
Argument highlighted by the ld. Lawyers of the parties
Complainant filed written notes of argument. As per BNA the evidence on affidavit and written notes of argument of complainant are to be taken into consideration for passing final order.
Argument as advanced by the agent of the complainant heard in full. In course of argument ld. Lawyer of complainant has given emphasis on evidence and document produced by parties.
DECISIONS WITH REASONS
The first three issues/ points of consideration which have been framed on the ground of maintainability and/ or jurisdiction, cause of action and whether complainant is a consumer in the eye of law, are very vital issues and so these three points of consideration are clubbed together and taken up for discussion jointly at first.
Regarding these three points of consideration it is very important to note that in this complaint case the complainant has claimed compensation of Rs.8000000/- towards physical pain and mental agony suffered by the complainant and his family members. Moreso the complainant has also claimed Rs.1888570/- towards the litigation cost of this case. Thus it is crystal clear the total claim of the complainant in this case is more than Rs.9988570/- but fact remains that this District Commission has the pecuniary jurisdiction of trying a complaint case which is valued up to Rs.5000000/-. So it is crystal clear that this District Commission has no pecuniary jurisdiction to try this complaint case. For that reason this case is not maintainable.
As this case is not maintainable and barred by jurisdiction issue, this District Commission finds no justification of entering into discussion in respect of other issues.
In the result, it is accordingly,
Ordered
that this complaint case be and the same is not maintainable as this District Commission has no pecuniary jurisdiction to try this case.
So let the complaint petition be returned to the complainant with liberty to file the same before appropriate Forum.
No order is passed as to cost.
Let a plain copy of this judgement be supplied at free of cost to the parties of their Ld. Lawyers/agents on record by hand under proper acknowledgement.
Let this judgment be uploaded in the official website of this District Commission.
