Orissa

Cuttak

CC/113/2016

Soumya Priyadarsini - Complainant(s)

Versus

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

Self

13 Apr 2017

ORDER

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

C.C No.113/2016

 

Soumya Priyadarsini,

At present C/o: Sri A.N.Mishra,

Hazari Lane,Tala Telenga Bazar,

P.O:Telenga Bazar,PS:Purighat,

Town/Dist:Cuttack.                                                                     … Complainant.

 

Vrs.

1.        State Bank of India,Main Branch

Represented through the Chief Manager,

Cuttack At:Kacheri Road,P.S:Lalbagh,

                          Cuttack

 

2.        State Bank of India,

Choudhury Bazar Branch represented through the

Branch Manager,At/PO:Choudhury Bazar,

Town/Dist:Cuttack.,

 

3.        Ashok Ram,Cash Officer-in-Chrage,SBI,

       Choudhury Bazar Branch,Cuttack,

       At/PO Choudhury Bazar,Town/Dist:Cuttack.             

 

4.        Manoranjan Dash,ATM Channel Manager,

SBI,Link Road,Cuttack.                                                                    … Opp. Parties.

 

Present:               Sri Dhruba Charan Barik,President.

Sri Bichitrananda Tripathy, Member.

Smt. Sarmistha Nath, Member (W).

 

Date of filing:    27.08.2016

Date of Order:  13.04.2017

 

For the complainant.  :    Self.

For the O.Ps.                 :   Sri M.M.Swain,Adv. & Associates.

Smt. Sarmistha Nath,Member(W).

                The complainant being a consumer filed the complaint before this Forum against the O.Ps for redressal of her grievances under the provisions of Consumer Protection Act in terms of the prayer made in the complaint petition.  The allegation made in the complaint petition is with regard to unfair trade practice and deficiency in service and for direction to O.Ps to pay Rs.1.00 lakh towards compensation along with litigation expenses.

1. The case of the complainant in brief is that the complaint is a Savings Bank account holder in the main branch of State Bank of India, Collectorate Compound,Cuttack bearing A/c. No.10861754748.  On 28.5.2015 at 10 A.M. she had deposited Rs.20,000/- through cash deposit machine installed near Choudhury Bazar Branch of SBI.  The cash deposit machine returned Rs.500/- out of the total amount of Rs.20,000/- and when she tried to deposit again the returned amount of Rs.500/-, two messages displayed in the monitor of the machine as “Hardware error encountered”, “last transaction cancelled.”

To ascertain the fate of the amount deposited, she pressed the appropriate button of the cash deposit machine and found that the amount was not credited to her account.  Thereafter she approached the Branch Manager and staff of linked branch of the cash deposit machine by submitting a written application stating her grievance.  The Branch Manager assured that the problem will be sorted out by afternoon and as there was no paper in the machine, it will not display/print balance amount and advised to come after 12 hours.  She came to the bank after 12 hours but the accounts officer told that the amount is not found in the machine.  The complainant requested to conduct C.C T.V enquiry but they did not bother, rather the accounts officer asked the complainant to visit ATM channel Link Manager who did not respond.  So the complainant approached the Head Office, Bhubaneswar but she was advised to lodge a complaint before the concerned branch and she lodged such complaint (Annexure-1).  The complainant approached the concerned branch but in vain.

Being aggrieved, the complainant lodged a complaint in the local police station (Anenxure-2) and also intimated the Ombudsman by registered post(Annexure-3).  She also contacted the Ombudsman over phone and as per his advice submitted relevant copy of documents before him on 9.9.2015(Annexure-4).  The Ombudsman informed the complainant that the amount has been credited to her account and she can withdraw the said amount from the ATM.

After the information, the complainant visited the SBI ATM and when she pressed the appropriate button to withdraw the amount a message was displayed on the monitor screen that the said amount is withheld by the bank(Annexure-5).  The complainant brought the above facts into the notice of Ombudsman on 9.9.2015 and the Bank Manager call up the complainant and asked for an undertaking to withdraw the amount.  The complainant contacted the Bank Ombudsman, who advised her not to sign on the undertaking.  The with held amount was withdrawn by the Bank on 19.05.2015(Annexure-6).

2. The O.Ps entered their appearance through advocates and filed written version admitting that the amount which has been deposited by the complainant on 28.5.2015 in the Cash Deposit Machine has already been credited to the S.B.Account of the complainant along with interest on 9.9.2015.  But the message displayed on the monitor of the machine is “Hardware error” which is a mechatronic defect developed suddenly in the said machine and there is no fault of the O.Ps.
3. We have heard the advocates of both the parties and gone through the case record and documents filed by the respective parties and found that the complainant has approached the concerned Bank authorities to sort out the problems and credit the amount to her bank account but the O.Ps on some plea or the other have not co-operated with the complainant which clearly exhibits the malafide intention of the O.Ps and amounts to deficiency in service and unfair trade practice on the part of the O.Ps.  Hence the case is ordered against the O.Ps.
4. The complainant was unnecessarily harassed by the Bank for which she was not able to withdraw her own money and suffered from mental agony and humiliation.  Therefore she has taken shelter of this Hon’ble Court.  She has prayed for a compensation of Rs.90,000/- towards mental agony and Rs.10,000/- towards cost of litigation.

ORDER

The prayer of the complainant is allowed on contest against the O.Ps.  The O.Ps are directed to pay an amount of Rs.20,000/- towards compensation and pay a sum of Rs.10,000/- towards litigation cost to the complainant within 2 months from the date of receipt of this order.

Typed to dictation, corrected and pronounced by the Hon’ble Member in the Open Court on this the 13^th   day of April,2017  under the seal and signature of this Forum.

 

  ( Smt. Sarmistha Nath )

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

                                                                                                         President.

                                                                                                    (Sri B.N.Tripathy )

                                                                                                          Member