BEFORE THE DISTRICT CONSUMER DISPUTES
REDRESSAL FORUM, JALANDHAR.
Complaint No.173 of 2018
Date of Instt. 20.04.2018
Date of Decision: 23.07.2019
Inderbir Singh Arora (CA), Age 50 years S/o Late Sh. Sardar Singh R/o House No.2-A, Cheema Nagar Extension, Mithapur Road, Jalandhar City, Punjab.
2nd Address of Office:- Inderbir Singh Arora (C.A.) 19, 2nd Floor, PPR Mall, Main Block, Near Gol Market, Model Town, Jalandhar City, Punjab.
..........Complainant
Versus
1. IDBI Bank Ltd. Head Office: IDBI Bank Ltd. IDBI Tower, WTC Complex, Cuffe Parade, Colaba, Mumbai - 400005 Through its Managing Director.
2. IDBI Bank Ltd. Branch Office: 136, New Jawahar Nagar, Jalandhar, Punjab Through its Branch Manager.
….….. Opposite Parties
Complaint Under the Consumer Protection Act.
Before: Sh. Karnail Singh (President)
Smt. Jyotsna (Member)
Present: Sh. K. S. Chawla, Adv Counsel for the Complainant.
Sh. Sidharth Kapoor, Adv Counsel for the OPs No.1 & 2.
Order
Karnail Singh (President)
1. This complaint has been filed by the complainant, wherein alleged that the complainant Inderbir Singh Arora is a Chartered Accountant and the instant complaint has been filed against the willful deficiency in service, unethical and unfair trade practice, betrayal of trust by illegally charging/levying huge amounts and interest thereupon, totaling Rs.27,640 upto 31.03.2018 under the garb of ‘Monthly Average Balance’ Charges (MAB) and interest thereon in the complainant’s account No.073102000012625 in the name of ‘I.S. Arora & Co. Chartered Accountants, without his consent and in blatant violation of the terms of opening the bank account, actually when the complainant’s said account was opened in the year 2004 with the written offer/assurance, vide letter dated 17.08.2004, of ‘No Minimum Balance Requirement’ and other facilities by the OPs No.1 and 2 and its branch under the category/scheme of ‘Special Current Account for Chartered Accountants with premium facilities’, and as by betraying the complainant’s trust and without his consent, the said bank unilaterally started illegally debiting/charging the unwarranted amounts in the complainant’s said account from around August 2015 under the pretext of Monthly Average Balance (MAB) charges and upon protest by the complainant, the charges illegally levied on 21.08.2015 were reversed on 26.08.2015, thereby the bank having acknowledged that the same were wrongfully, illegally levied, but thereafter, by showing indifference, the said charges were again illegally levied from the next month onwards and despite the complainant’s repeated objecting letters/emails dated 07.01.2016, 14.04.2016, 14.09.2016, 06.12.2016 and 09.02.2018, from time to time, the OPs No.1 and 2 and its branch by showing thick-skinned indifferences, not only continued with illegally levying/debiting the said charges, but also w.e.f. 30.09.2015 even started unduly levying/debiting the undue interest also on the illegally accumulated/debited negative balance and accordingly, the total amount of Rs.27,640.59/- upto 31.03.2018 has been illegally levied/debited by the bank in the complainant’s said account. That despite the complainant’s repeated representations, instead of reversing and stopping the levying of illegal charges, the OP No.2, IDBI Bank Branch sent evasive letter dated 31.10.2016 without any reasonable justification for imposing the Average Monthly Balance charges and even otherwise, by informing about the said unilateral imposition of AMB charges without the complainant’s consent and in violation of the terms of account opening, the same AMB charges and interest thereupon do not become lawful and cannot be treated as legally valid or sustainable and rather the said unwarranted charges are being unethically, illegally forced upon the complainant in self styled manner by the OPs No.1 and 2 against the norms of fairness and rather amounts to unfair trade practice and willful deficiency in service.
2. Due to all the above, the OPs have tried to dupe the complainant and to take him for a ride, in order to cause the wrongful loss to him and wrongful gain to the bank and without his fault, the professionally qualified complainant has been subjected to harassment, mental agony, tarnishing of image, undue litigation costs and financial loss etc. by the OPs, who are responsible for willful deficiency in service, unethical and unfair trade practice and accordingly, a cause of action accrued to the complainant for filing the instant complaint with the prayer that the complaint of the complainant may be accepted and OPs No.1 and 2 be directed to reverse the entire illegally debited amount of Rs.27,640.59 upto 31.03.2018 on account of Monthly Average Balance Charges and interest there upon in the complainant’s bank account and also reversed such amounts and interest if any and further OPs No.1 and 2 be directed to pay compensation of Rs.50,000/- to the complainant alongwith interest @ 12% per annum for causing mental tension and harassment to the complainant and further, OPs No.1 and 2 be directed to pay litigation expenses of Rs.20,000/- alongwith interest @ 12% per annum.
3. Notice of the complaint was given to the OPs and accordingly, both the OPs appeared through its counsel and filed joint written reply, whereby contested the complaint by taking preliminary objections that the complainant has got no locus-standi to file the present complaint. It is further alleged that the present complaint is not maintainable in the present form. It is further averred that the complainant does not come to the Forum rather he has concealed the material facts and same is liable to the dismissed on this score only with cost. The MAB charges and interest if occurred to the complainant i.e. only due to his own carelessness, negligence and non-adopting of preventive measures suggested by the OPs and further alleged that the complainant does not come under the definition of ‘Consumer’. On merits, it is admitted that the complainant is having an account in the OP bank and further submitted that whatsoever charges has been charged to the account of the complainant they have been done absolutely in accordance with the time to time changes introduced by the bank after decision in the Board Meeting of the Bank. Furthermore, the facility of “no minimum balance requirement” introduced specially for the Chartered Accountants in the name “Special Current Account for Chartered Accountants with premium facilities” was amended w.e.f. 01.07.2015 and it was made clear to every account holder that products keep changing time to time with notice to customer as per BCSBI guidelines and it has become compulsory for every such account holder to maintain a minimum balance in his current account and in the event of such failure, the account holder was liable to pay charges for not maintaining the minimum balance of his account. Notice of this change was duly circulated among all such account holders by way of the SMS, Emails at their registered correspondence mode as well as publication in the Newspapers. Similarly, complainant was also informed about this change through SMS/Emails at the Email ID got registered with the OP by the complainant and further admitted that the complainant had opened his account with the OP No.2 in the year 2004. The other allegations as made in the complaint are categorically denied and lastly submitted that the complaint of the complainant is without merits, the same may be dismissed.
4. In order to prove his case, the complainant himself tendered into evidence his duly sworn affidavit Ex.CA along with some documents Ex.C-1 to Ex.C-9 and then closed the evidence.
5. Similarly, counsel for the OPs No.1 and 2 tendered into evidence affidavit Ex.OPA and closed the evidence.
6. We have heard the learned counsel for the respective parties and also gone through the written arguments submitted by learned counsel for the complainant as well as case file very minutely.
7. The case of the complainant is admitted by the OPs to the extent that the complainant opened an account in the year 2004 under the special scheme of the bank known as ‘Special Current Account for Chartered Accountants with premium facilities’, with its zero balance product and in Clause No.14 of the said scheme Ex.C-2, it is categorically mentioned that the facility mentioned above will life time for Chartered Accountants, means the facility for its zero balance, is for whole time of the account holder i.e. Chartered Accountants and accordingly, the complainant enjoy the said account till 30.06.2015 and it is version of the OP that the said facility of zero balance was amended w.e.f. 01.07.2015 and thereafter, a minimum balance is required, the said amendment was made as per BCSBI guidelines and even the said change was introduced by the Bank after the decision of the Board meeting of the bank, but the complainant himself failed to maintain the minimum balance in his account and due to that reason, the charges was debited from the account of the complainant. It is further submitted by the OPs that the complainant was well informed regarding that amendment of minimum balance, vide notice circulated through SMS, Emails to the registered phone of the complainant, rather it was also circulated amongst all the account holders, but despite that the complainant failed to maintain the minimum balance and as such, there is no negligence as well as deficiency in service on the part of the OPs.
8. We have sympathetically considered the version of both the parties and find that there is very small issue in dispute i.e. whether the said amendment w.e.f. 01.07.2015 will cover the account of the complainant or not, for that purpose, we have gone through a letter dated 17.08.2004 Ex.C-2 issued by the OP, whereby a special facility/treatment was given to the Chartered Accountant to get open their account with zero balance and in that letter, the clause No.1 described that there will be no non-maintenance charges, its zero balance product and further in Clause-14 gave this facility to the Chartered Accountants for life time, means zero balance product. As per the above letter, when the complainant got opened his account in the bank of the OP, then there was no condition for Monthly Average Balance Charges, but the same was allegedly amended by the OP w.e.f. 01.07.2015, regarding that amendment, an intimation was given by the OP, in response to letter of the complainant, a letter Ex.C-6 dated 31.10.2016, whereby “IDBI Bank has introduced/revised certain service charges and also introduced penal charges for non-maintenance of minimum stipulated balance w.e.f. July 1, 2015, which is applicable to all account holders”, if we extract the exact meaning of above amendment, then we can say without any hesitation that the said amendment was w.e.f. 01.07.2015 and it has not been mentioned in the said letter that the said amendment will retrospective effect, rather it shows that it has prospective effect, if so, then the said amendment is not applicable to the case of the complainant because the amendment was made in the month of July, 2015, whereas the complainant got opened his account in the year 2004, so we find that the alleged amendment is not effecting the right of the complainant in any manner, rather the OPs are illegally debiting the minimum balance charges amount from the account of the complainant, which tantamount to deficiency in service and unfair trade practice and thus, the OPs are liable to reverse the amount already deducted from the account of the complainant in the name of Monthly Average Balance Charges (MAB) alongwith compensation and litigation expenses.
9. In the light of above detailed discussion, the complaint of the complainant is partly accepted and OPs are directed to reimburse the amount of Rs.27,640.59 in the account of the complainant i.e. Account No.073102000012625 and further, OPs are directed to pay compensation to the complainant, to the tune of Rs.25,000/- for causing mental tension and harassment to the complainant and further, OPs are directed to pay litigation expenses of Rs.7000/- to the complainant. The entire amount be paid to the complainant within 30 days from the date of receipt of the copy of order, failing which the OPs will further liable to pay interest upon the whole amount as mentioned above i.e. Rs.59,640.59/- @ 12% per annum from the date of filing complaint i.e. 20.04.2018, till realization. This complaint could not be decided within stipulated time frame due to rush of work.
10. Copies of the order be supplied to the parties free of cost, as per Rules. File be indexed and consigned to the record room.
Dated Jyotsna Karnail Singh
23.07.2019 Member President
