DISTRICT CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL FORUM,<br /> BATHINDA (PUNJAB)<br /> <br /> CC. No. 48 of 17-02-2009<br /> Decided on : 14-07-2009 <br /> <br /> Mahesh Goyal, Territory Co-ordinator, LPG Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, LPG Plant, Plot No. A1 & A2, PSIEC Growth Centre, Mansa Road, Bathinda.<br /> .... Complainant<br /> Versus<br /> <br /> ICICI Bank Limited through its Branch Manager, ICICI Bank, Bibiwala Road, Bathinda. ...opposite party<br /> <br /> Complaint under Section 12 of the Consumer Protection<br /> Act, 1986.<br /> <br /> QUORUM <br /> <br /> Sh. George, President<br /> Dr. Phulinder Preet, Member<br /> <br /> For the Complainant : Sh. Pardeep Sharma, Advocate, counsel for the complainant<br /> For the Opposite parties : Sh. Sanjay Goyal,Advocate counsel, for the opposite party. <br /> <br /> O R D E R<br /> <br /> GEORGE, PRESIDENT<br /> <br /> 1. Sh. Mahesh Goyal, complainant has filed the present complaint under section 12 of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 (here-in-after referred to as 'Act') with the allegations against the opposite party that he is an account holder of the opposite party having account No. 023501511441. The opposite party debited three transactions in his account on 09-12-2008 amounting to Rs. 349/- Rs. 1295/- and Rs. 349/- respectively alleging the same to be debit card purchases on 10-08-2008 and 14-08-2008. Infact he made no such purchases/transactions through his debit card. Moreover, as per procedure, any transaction made through debit card is supposed to be debited on the same day whereas these three transactions have been debited after about four months from the date of alleged purchases. He made a complaint regarding these transactions with the customer care of the opposite party, but he failed to provide the details of the debit entries and also failed to reverse the amount of Rs. 1993/-. He sent various E-mails to the opposite party but the complainant did not receive any concrete reply. He claims that he is entitled for the refund of the amount of Rs. 1993/- alongwith interest @18% P.A. from the opposite party and for an amount of Rs. 50,000/- as damages on account of harassment, mental tension, botheration due to the act and conduct of the opposite party. He also claims reasonable amount of litigation expenses.<br /> 2. The complaint is contested by the opposite party by raising inter-alia preliminary objections that complaint has been filed on false facts; complaint is not maintainable; complainant should file a civil suit for mandatory injunction; complaint requires elaborate oral and documentary evidence and therefore, liable to be dismissed; complainant is not consumer; complaint is not maintainable because the entries dated 09-12-2008 were debited by VISA as those entries were claimed by VISA card and if any person feels that wrong amount has been debited by card holder then request for that is to be given within 30 days time as time for retrieval of amount back is 30 days but complainant never acted in time and as such, he was advised to send a complaint letter; complaint did not file any fraud report by calling customer care centre rather filed the present complaint; complaint is bad for non-joinder of necessary parties namely VISA Card.<br /> On merits, the facts as alleged in the complaint are not admitted as correct and the facts as given in the preliminary objections in the written reply are reiterated on merits as well.<br /> 3. Both the parties in order to prove their respective contentions have led respective evidence. <br /> 4. The complainant Sh. Mahesh Goyal has produced in evidence his affidavit Ex. C-1, photocopy of courier receipt Ex. C-2, photocopy of letter dated 05-01-2009 Ex. C-3 and photocopies of E-mails Ex. C-4 to Ex. C-7. <br /> 5. To controvert the evidence of the complainant, the opposite party produced on record affidavit of Sh. Amit Ahuja, Branch Manager Ex. R-2 and photocopies of transaction slips Ex. R-2 to Ex. R-4.<br /> 6. We have heard the learned counsel for the parties and perused the entire record of the case. <br /> 7. The claim of the complainant is that opposite party debited three transactions on 09-12-2008 amounting to Rs. 349/-, Rs. 1295/- and Rs. 349/- respectively in the account of the complainant alleging the same to be debit card purchases on 10-08-2008 and 14-08-2008 whereas he did not make any such purchases. We have perused the affidavit of the complainant Ex. C-1 alongwith his E-mail communication with the opposite party Ex. C-4 to Ex. C-7 filed in evidence. In the E-mail message Ex. C-7, sent by complainant to the opposite party, he has stated that “ As discussed please arrange to provide proper document proof that I have made debit card purchases and signed the transaction slip.” He has sent another E-mail message as per Ex. C-7 that “I have been debited vide 3 transaction on 09-12-2008 Rs. 349/-, Rs. 1295/- and Rs. 349/- respectively for debit card purchase on 10-08-2008 and 14-08-2008 however I do not remember for any such purchase done 4 months back. Debit card purchases are debited same day. How come now you are debiting 4 months old transactions. Kindly arrange to credit <br /> Rs. 349/-+ 1295/-+349/- = Rs. 1993/- to my account and confirm.” The perusal of E-mail messages reveals that the complainant has not denied that he did not make any purchase through his debit card but simply because the transactions were debited after about four months from his account on 09-12-2008, he has sent message that he did not remember any such purchases done four months back. He asked the opposite party that Debit card purchases are debited same day and how can opposite party is debiting four months old transactions.<br /> 8. The opposite party produced on record affidavit of Sh. Amit Ahjua, Branch Manager alongwith merchant copy of transactions Ex. R-2 to Ex. R-4. The perusal of Ex. R 2 to Ex. R-4 reveals that purchases were made by one and the same person as is apparent from the signatures of the customer appearing on these three documents. The signatures appearing as a customer have some characteristics similar to the characteristics appearing in the signatures of the complainant available on record i.e. the complaint, his affidavit and other documents. These documents viz Ex. R-2 to Ex. R-4 have not been controverted or denied by the complainant at any stage during the proceedings. He has not come forward to rebut the evidence of the opposite party to this effect. The complainant has not brought on record his statement of account showing that the amount was actually debited from his account nor even he has brought his VISA card on the record so as to enable us to compare the number of his VISA card with the documents Ex. R-2 to Ex. R-4. <br /> 9. Under these circumstances, we are of the considered view that the complainant has not been able to prove his allegations against the opposite party so as to enable us to grant him any relief. Accordingly, complaint being devoid of merits, is dismissed leaving the parties to bear their own costs.<br /> Copy of this order be sent to the parties concerned free of cost and file be consigned.<br /> Pronounced :<br /> 14-07-2009 (George)<br /> President <br /> (Dr. Phulinder Preet)<br /> Member <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />