Orissa

Cuttak

CC/133/2017

Dheeraj Pattanaik - Complainant(s)

Versus

Branch Manager,State Bank of India - Opp.Party(s)

B K Dash

01 Aug 2019

ORDER

IN THE COURT OF THE DIST. CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL FORUM,CUTTACK.

C.C No.133/2017

 

           Dheeraj Pattnaik,

Permanent Res. of At:B/177 PPL Township,

Paradeep,PO:PPL Township,Pin-754145,

Dist:Jagatsinghpur, presently studying

B.Com(Commerce) in Ravenshaw University.                                     .… Complainant.

 

Vrs.

1.        The Branch Manager,

State Bank of India,Praradeep Bank Street Branch,

Pin-754142,Dist:Jagatsinghpur

 

2.            The Owner,M/s. Tarini Chitralaya,Haripur Road,

Dolamundai(Near Hotel Akbari),

Pin-753001,Dist:Cuttack.

 

3.            Mr. Alok Tripathy,

M/s. Tarini Chitralaya, Haripur Road,

Dolamundai(Near Hotel Akbari),

Pin-753001,Dist:Cuttack.                                                                        … Opp. Parties.

 

Present:               Sri Dhruba Charan Barik,President.

Smt. Sarmistha Nath, Member (W).

 

Date of filing:    13.11.2017

Date of Order:  01.08.2019

 

For the complainant  :            Mr. B.K.Dash,Adv. & Associates.

For the O.P.No.1         :           Mr. A.Samantaray,Adv. & Associates.

For the O.P.No.2 & 3 :            Mr. S.K.Dash,Adv. & Associates.

 

Smt. Sarmistha Nath,Member(W).

 

                The complainant being a consumer has filed this complaint before this Forum against the O.Ps for Redressal of his grievances U/S-12 of the Consumer Protection Act,1986(Act in short) in terms of his prayer made in the complaint  is with regard to deficiency in service on the part of  O.Ps.

1. Case of the complainant in brief is that the complainant purchased an Electrical Tabla for an amount of Rs.12,700/- from M/s. Tarini Chitralaya,Dalamundai,Cuttack on dt.20.12.2016.  After purchase, the complainant made payment of Rs.12,700/- through Debit card of State Bank of India but the seller(O.P No.2 & 3) the shop informed that the payment was not successful and the money was reversed to the complainant’s account and the O.Ps 2 & 3 demanded to make the payment.  The complainant again made payment of Rs.12,700/- through Debit card.  But again the O.Ps 2 & 3 informed that the payment was not successful.  The complainant informed to the O.Ps 2 & 3 that money was not reversed to his account.  The complainant intimated O.Ps 2 & 3 to make the payment after verification of the account.  Copy of the reversed memo is annexed as Aannexure-3 series.

The complainant has a Savings Bank account vide Account No.2022516216 in State Bank of India at Paradeep Bank Street Branch.The complainant went to the bank, O.P No.1 to update the pass book on 2.1.2017 for verification and he found that on 20.12.2016 he made two transactions i.e. at 19.04.36 pm and again at 19.06.42 pm in favour of O.P No.2 & 3 and after update of pass book, he came to know that one payment i.e. Rs.12,700/- was reversed to the account of the application whereas the another payment of Rs.12,700/- was not reversed back to the said account of the applicant.Copy of the account statement is annexed as Annexure-4 series.

The complainant made a representation to the Branch Manager,State Bank of India,Paradeep Bank Street Branch(O.P.No.1) about the non-reversal of the amount to his account and the Branch Manager promised the complainant to refund the said amount within 14 days after verification.Copy of the representation dt.2.1.17 is annexed as Annexure-5.

On 10.1.17 the complainant paid the cost of the Electrical tabla which was purchased by the complainant on 20.12.16 with an amount of Rs.12,700/- to M/s. Tarini Chitralaya and also requested the owner to verify the whereabouts of non-reversed payment of Rs.12,700/- but no action was taken by the owner of M/s. Tarini Chitralaya in this regard.Copy of the cash memo dt.10.1.17 of Electronic table is annexed as Annexure-6.

The complainant went several times to the Branch Manager of the S.B.I,Paradeep Bank Street Branch and after several requests the said Branch Manager registered a complain on23.1.17 and closed the complain illegally without solving the problem of the complainant on 6.2.17.Copy of the complain detail of the Bank is annexed as Annexure-7.

The complainant has gone several times to the O.Ps but O.Ps have remained silent for which he has been facing financial hardship and mental harassment due to unsatisfactory service of O.Ps.

The complainant has prayed for a direction to compensate the complainant of Rs.2,00,000/-(two lakhs) for his financial loss, harrasment,mental agony since 11 months and further pray cost of this litigation as deemed fit and proper.

2. The O.Ps 2 & 3 appeared through their counsel and filed their written version.  The case of the O.Ps are that the complainant on 20.12.16 purchased an electrical table with an amount of Rs.12,700/- from O.P No.2 & 3.  After purchase, he made card payment of Rs.12,700/- from his Debit card of SBI, on 20.12.16 at about 19.4.36 sec but the O.P.3 who was present in the shop intimated the complainant that the payment was not successful and demanded swipe his Debit card again.  It is also admitted that the complainant found the money was reversed to his account for which he agreed to swipe again and accordingly on that day at about 19.06.42 sec he swiped again and the same is also shown reversed which this O.P No.3 intimated to the complainant.

However since the last transaction was not successful and the money was not reversed to the account of the complainant, he requested the O.P No.3 to hand over the above tabla and on good faith, the O.P No.3 handed over the tabla to the complainant on that day i.e. 20.12.16 without any payment.The O.P No.3 also requested the complainant to verify his account and intimate the fact otherwise make another payment for the price of table within 7 days.

Within 5 to six days the complainant again requested the O.P No.3 over his telephone to give evidence of the reversed receipt of the account of the shop as the same is demanded by his Banker.This O.P No.3 by whatsapp send the receipts to the complainant which the complainant filed in this case.The complainant came to the shop of these O.Ps on 10.1.17 and told the O.P No.3 that the bank is taking time to solve the problems and the complainant again made payment of the cost of the table on 10.1.17 i.e. Rs.12,700/- by swapping his debit card and the same was immediately shown successful.Only two times the complainant had came to the shop i.e. 1^st time i.e. the day of purchase of tabla and the next time is on 10.1.17 when he paid the cost of the tabla but on several occasions he made conversation with the O.P No.3 over phone.The O.P handed over Tabla without receiving any amount and also as per his demand given him the reversed receipts memo which they obtained from the Bank.He did not come to the shop and informed about the matter as and when the O.P No.3 makes telephone call.He remained silent saying the bank has not solved his problems.No deficiency on the part of these O.Ps because of the fact that tabla had no defects which was given to the complainant.O.Ps 2 & 3 further stated that as per norms of the Ban k any amount during swipe will be settled by the bank within one business day but the O.P No.3 went to the bank to check his C.C account on several times as the money had not come to his account within seven days.He requested the complainant to make payment again.The complainant also intimated the fact that his banker has not solved his problems and for which he made further payment of the cost of table on 10.1.17 by swiping his debit card and the same was also found successful.

The O.Ps after receiving the notice from this Hon’ble Forum again went to the bank and demanded the account statement of C.C accounts and the Bank supplied a statement of account on 7.12.17 wherein the officer who provided the POS machine of the Bank has intimated that the amount swipe on 20.12.16 has been credit to the C.C account on 7.1.17 with another payment and the total payment is Rs.16,014.55 on that day.A copy of the C.C account is enclosed.

The O.Ps 2 & 3 immediately intimated the fact to the complainant and requested him to take back the money however he denied to receive on the ground that the case is pending before this Forum.So the O.Ps 2 & 3 prepared a D/D for the said amount of Rs.12,700/- which they intended to hand over to the complainant.The further plea of the O.P is that due to negligence of Bank, the transaction was credited after 18 days of swipe which is beyond the control of O.Ps 2 & 3.He prayed before the Forum to direct the complainant to receive the D.D from O.Ps 2 & 3.

3. The O.P No.1 Bank appeared and filed the written version in an evasive and careless manner.  The plea of the O.P.1 is that due to slow of online system, the payment was not made successful and the money was returned to the complainant’s account and after success of online system, the said payment was made successful from the complainant account through debit card.  Once the transaction has been made or performed, the transacted money cannot reverse back to the account of account holder because on the basis of transaction slip, the same has been acted upon where the bank authority have no role to play and the bank authority only to acclimate the system by reaching in a correct position as per instruction made by the account holder and the complainant has made vague allegations against the O.P No.1.
4. We have heard from the parties at length and gone through the documents filed by the parties carefully.

During the course of argument, the counsel for the complainant contended that the amount was debited from the account of the complainant and credited into the account of O.P No.2 & 3 on 7.1.2017 though the swipe was made on 20.12.2016.Neither the O.P No.1 Bank nor the O.Ps 2 & 3 disclosed the same in spite of several requests by the complainant rather the O.Ps 2 & 3 received the payment from the complainant on 10.1.17, i.e. three days after credit of the amount to their account.So the above said act of the O.Ps amounts to deficiency in service and unfair trade practice adopted by the O.Ps.

Per contra the counsel for the O.Ps 2 & 3 submitted that since the amount was credited after 18 days of swipe and immediately O.Ps requested the complainant to take back the money but he denied on the ground that the case is pending.The O.Ps 2 & 3 have not produced any document rather they have received the amount three days after the credit of amount to their account which amounts to unfair trade practice.

The counsel for the O.P No.1 in his written version as well as in course of argument instead of controverting the arguments advanced by the complainant, took the stand that there is no such material to show the deficiency in service by O.P No.1 as because every online transaction by the bank is transparent ,fair and proper and once the transaction is made, the transacted money cannot be reversed back.The counsel for O.P No.1 failed to explain the reason of delay of 18 days for credit of the amount and also the reason of not settling the issue which amounts to deficiency in service on the part of O.P No.1.

In our considered views, there is deficiency in service on the part of O.P No.1 and unfair trade practice on the part of O.Ps 2 & 3 and they are liable to pay compensation to the complainant.

                                                                                ORDER

The O.Ps 2 & 3 are directed to refund the credited amount of Rs.12,700/- along with compensation of Rs.30,000/-and the O.P No.1 is directed to pay compensation of Rs.30,000/- to the complainant towards mental agony within 45 days from the date of receipt of copy of this order.

                Typed to dictation, corrected and pronounced by the Hon’ble Member in the Open Court on this the 1^st   day of August,2019  under the seal and signature of this Forum.

 

  ( Smt. Sarmistha Nath )

                     Member (W)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          (Sri D.C.Barik)

                                                                                                                 President.