DISTRICT CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL FORUM-II U.T. CHANDIGARH Complaint Case No.: 118 of 2009 Date of Inst: 27.01.2009 Gurinder Singh Boparai r/o H.No.4542/B, Sector 70, Mohali 160071, Punjab ---Complainant V E R S U S 1. ICICI Bank Limited. Regd. Office at Landmark, Race Circle, Vadodra-390007. 2. ICICI Bank Limited. SCO No.180-182, Second Floor Sector 9-C, Chandigarh (Next to British Library, Chandigarh). 3. Clear Trip, Unit Number: 001, Ground Floor, DTC Building, Sitaram Mill Compound, N.M.Joshi Marg, Delifle Road, Lower Parel (East) Mumbai-400013 through its Manager. 4. Akbar Travels, 69/71, Janjikar Street, First Floor, Near Crawford Market, Mumbai-400003 through its Manager. 5. Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation, 9th Floor, Bank of Baroda Building, 16 Parliament Street, New Delhi-110001 through its Managing Director. ---Opposite Parties QUORUM SHRI LAKSHMAN SHARMA PRESIDENT SMT.MADHU MUTNEJA MEMBER PRESENT: Ms.Divya Sharma, Adv. for complainant None for the OPs No.1 & 2. Sh.R.K.Singla, Advocate for OP-4. Sh.N.K.Jakhmi, Adv. for OP-5. OP-3 exparte. --- PER LAKSHMAN SHARMA, PRESIDENT Sh.Gurinder Singh Boparai has filed this complaint under section 12 of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 praying therein that OPs be directed to :- i) Make appropriate corrections in the credit card account statement. ii) Withdraw/drop all the proceedings related to the credit card account. iii) Pay Rs.50000/- as compensation for mental agony and harassment. iv) Pay Rs.11,000/- as costs of litigation. 2. In brief, the case of the complainant is that he is holder of credit card No.4477474005654002 issued by OP-1. He was making the payments regularly against the said credit card. The complainant received credit card statement dated 29.04.2008 wherein an amount of Rs.45978/- is shown to have been debited for various online air travel and railway bookings. According to the complainant, neither he nor any of his family members got the said tickets booked. The said credit card was not ever used for the above said booking. He also got his credit card blocked. He also filled up a form for waiving of the entries in his account statement concerning the said bookings as per the advice given by the officials of OP-2. According to the complainant, OPs did not waive of the said entries instead he started receiving calls from the recovery agents for making payment of the said amount. The complainant also reported the matter to the Manager Credit Card Collections Department vide letter dated 21.10.2008 (Annexure C-2) with a copy to Banking Ombudsman who advised the complainant vide communication dated 03.12.2008 to attend the meeting to settle the issue. According to the complainant, he attended the meetings of the Banking Ombudsman from time to time and submitted all the documents which were in his possession but nothing fruitful was done. The said documents show that some of the bookings for which he had been charged through his credit card had been cancelled by the travel agency itself as they had suspected some fraud. The case of the complainant is that instead of resolving the dispute and waiving of the entries mentioned above, he received notice dated 15.12.2008 whereby he was directed to make payment of Rs.66,114.15 within 15 days. In these circumstances, the present complaint was filed seeking the reliefs mentioned above. 3. In the reply filed by OPs No.1 and 2, it has been pleaded that during the conciliation meetings with Banking Ombudsman, the complainant was informed that the credit card was in his possession and the same had been used for the said transactions. So debit has been made from the credit card account and payments have been rightly made by the Bank in accordance with the same as the bank was duty bound to comply with the same. It has further been pleaded that the complainant failed to prove the fraudulent use of the credit card and therefore, the entries could not be reversed. In these circumstances, according to OPs NO.1 and 2, there is no deficiency in service on its part and the complaint deserves dismissal. 4. OP-3 was duly served but nobody appeared on its behalf either in person or through counsel. Therefore, it was ordered to be proceeded against exparte vide order dated 05.10.2009. 5. In the reply filed by OP-4, it has been pleaded that the complainant has no concern with the OP-4 and the present dispute is between the complainant and the ICICI Bank Ltd i.e. OPs No.1 and 2 and the OP-4 has no concern with the same. All the pleadings of the complainant are denied being not related to it. According to OP-4, there is no deficiency in service on its part and the complaint qua it deserves dismissal. 6. In the reply filed by OP-5, it has been pleaded that the present case relates to the complainant and OPs No.1 and 2 regarding the fraudulent use of the credit card. It has further been pleaded that only two transactions were made for railway booking through E-ticketing on 03.04.2008 and 15.04.2008. The detail of the user’s profile, transaction detail and ERS slips are attached with the written statement as Annexure A to F. It has further been pleaded that no claim has been raised by the complainant against OP-5 and as such the complaint qua it deserves to be dismissed. 7. We have heard the learned counsel for the contesting parties and have gone through the entire record including documents, annexures, affidavits etc. 8. From the documents on record and also from the pleadings of the respective parties, it is apparent that for the amount of Rs.66,114.15P being claimed by the Ops No.1 and 2 as outstanding dues from the complainant. There are no bills available nor is there any bank statement relating to the said credit card. Even the two bookings for air travel alleged to have been made by the complainant with OP-4 were also subsequently cancelled by the said OP-4 as is evident from Annexure C-6. As such there appears to be no outstanding amount towards the complainant even on account of these two bookings. Even in respect of certain ticket bookings made by the Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation on behalf of the complainant, there is no mention of the credit card number in any of these bookings. So, it does not prove that the said bookings were made by the complainant by using the said credit card. So far as the balance amount of Rs. 63,777/- is concerned, there is no document at all neither any bill nor account statement nor any other evidence to prove the case of OPs that the said amount was outstanding against the complainant and on what basis. Admittedly, the complainant has filed his affidavit stating that he has never used the credit card for any transaction and therefore, there is no liability on his part to pay any amount being claimed by OPs. So insistence for the payment of Rs.66,114.15P by OPs No.1 and 2 without any supportive evidence amounts to deficiency in service as well as unfair trade practice. 9. As the complainant has failed to make out any case of deficiency in service against OPs No.3 to 5, therefore, the complaint qua them is dismissed. 10. In view of the above findings, this complaint is allowed with a direction to OPs No.1 and 2 to withdraw its claim against the complainant for the amount of Rs.66,114.15P as nothing is payable by the complainant in the absence of any documents showing that he had used the credit card at any point of time qua these transactions. OPs No.1 and 2 are also directed to pay a sum of Rs.5000/- to the complainant as compensation for mental agony and harassment besides Rs.5000/- as costs of litigation. 11. This order be complied with by the OPs No.1 and 2 within 45 days from the date of receipt of its certified copy, failing which the OPs No.1 and 2 shall also be liable to refund Rs.5000/- to the complainant along with penal interest @ 18% p.a. from the date of filing of the complaint till its realization besides costs of litigation of Rs.5000/-. 12. Certified copy of this order be communicated to the parties, free of charge. After compliance file be consigned to record room. Announced 31.01.2011 Sd/- (LAKSHMAN SHARMA) PRESIDENT Cm sd/- (MADHU MUTNEJA) MEMBER
| | MRS. MADHU MUTNEJA, MEMBER | HONABLE MR. LAKSHMAN SHARMA, PRESIDENT | , | | 
