Order by:

Smt.Priti Malhotra, President

1.       The complainant has filed the instant complaint under section 35 of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 through her father stating that the complainant is the daughter of Rajinder Singh, who is studying in Govt. Primary School Machike and there is a  joint account of Rajinder Singh and his minor daughter Hargun Kaur i.e. complainant having account no.04021000912943 with Punjab and Sind Bank branch Bilaspur, District Moga. Alleged that in the said account an amount of Rs.4,03,564/- was credited  on 25.07.2023. Alleged further that Opposite Party No.2 Kulwinder Kaur having hands in gloves with Bank Manager of Opposite Party No.1 withdrawn the said amount from the joint account of the minor Hargun Kaur without any legal right or consent of the guardian/father of the complainant. Alleged further that the said amount was belonged to poor schedule caste family and the said amount cannot be withdrawn without the pre-consent of the guardian. Alleged by the complainant that the Opposite Party No.2 told that the said amount is related to purchase of uniforms and bill was wrongly prepared in the name of Hargun Kaur (complainant) instead of Hargun Enterprises, Moga, but the same is not tenable. Alleged further that the complainant visited the Opposite Party No.2 again to make the payment of above said account, but to no effect. The complainant also issued legal notices to the Opposite Parties No.1 & 2. Thereafter a vague reply has been received from District Education Officer (Elementary). Hence, this complaint. Vide instant complaint, the complainant has sought the following reliefs:-

a)       Opposite Parties may be directed to pay an amount of Rs,3,78,564/- i.e. amount withdrawn, Rs.50,000/- as compensation on account of mental tension, agony and physical harassment and Rs.10,000/- as cost of proceedings i.e. total amount of Rs.4,38,564/- alongwith interest @ 12% p.a. till the satisfaction of the claim of the complainant.

b)      And any other relief which this Commission may deem fit and proper be granted to the complainant in the interest of justice and equity.

2.       Opposite Party No.1 appeared through counsel and contested the complaint by filing written reply taking preliminary objections therein inter alia that this Commission has got no jurisdiction to try and entertain the present complaint as the complainant herself has leveled allegations of foul play and conspiracy against Opposite Party No.1 Bank and thus the alleged dispute needs voluminous evidence to decide the present complaint and the alleged dispute may be referred to Civil Court as per the prescribed law; the complaint is not maintainable being false, frivolous and vague and has been filed without any basis. In fact it is the minor complainant’s father namely Rajinder Singh who wants to take undue advantage of a bonafide mistake committed by District Education Office, Government of Punjab at Moga, when the amount in question was mistakenly transferred in the account of complainant which did not belong to her/him; the complaint is not maintainable against the Opposite Party Bank and Opposite Party No.1 Bank is mere a collecting bank and the amount of Rs.4,03,564/- was credited directly through NEFT by District Education Office itself in the saving account of complainant on 25.07.2023. There is no negligence on the part of answering Opposite Party No.1 and no violation of any banking rules and regulations in freezing and debiting the saving accounts of the complainant to return the remaining amount to DEO, Moga, which was wrongly credited in her account inadvertently. Averred further that the amount in question was wrongly credited in the saving account no.04021000912843 of the complainant Hargun Kaur lying with Opposite Party No.1 bank and the complainant was not entitled for the said amount of Rs.4,03,564/-, the amount which actually belongs to general public. Vide letter dated 25.08.2023 received by Opposite Party No.1 bank from Primary School, Village Machhike, District Moga that District Education Office, Moga erroneously credited Rs.4,03,564/- in the account of their student Hargun Kaur d/o Rajinder Singh in account no. 04021000912843 in place of Hargun Enterprises having actual account no.4668009300001443 and request to freeze the account and accordingly the account of the complainant was freezed and subsequently debited the amount of Rs.3,78,564/- i.e. the remaining amount lying in the account of complainant for which the complainant is not entitled for as per law. Averred further that as per prescribed law no notice whatsoever is required to be given to the complainant in the said eventuality. Averred further that an amount of Rs.10,000/- and then Rs.15,000/- were illegally an unauthorizedly withdrawn by Rajinder Singh father of complainant vide withdrawal vouchers duly signed by him dated 14.08.2023 and 16.08.2023 respectively. Averred further that all such exercise of correction was made under the provision of Section 72 of India Contract Act, 1872. Averred further that the complainant has not come with clean hands before this Commission; the complainant is stopped to file the present complaint by her own act and conduct; no deficient services have been rendered to the complainant as alleged; the complaint is bad for the purpose of non joinder of necessary parties. On merits, it is submitted that complainant herself has mentioned her wrong account nunber as 04021000912943 instead of correct account no as 04021000912843. As a matter of fact and as per entire record, documents and evidence involved in this dispute, it has been transpired that, Account no 04021000912843 belongs to Hargun kaur d/o Rajinder singh and there was a direct NEFT credit entry of Rs 403564/- on dated 25.07.2023. The Opposite Party No.1 Bank received a letter from Primary School, Village Machhike, District Moga, that District Education Office, Moga has erroneously credited Rs 403564/- in the account of Hargun kaur complainant in place of Hargun Enterprises account no 4668009300001443 IFSC PUNB0466800 i.e. Punjab National Bank, Nestle Branch, Moga, vide pay order no 2307004275. On receipt of such information and request to freeze the account of Hargun kaur, the account of complainant was freezed immediately as per banking rules and regulations and prescribed law. Further on dated 30.08.2023 the OP bank had received a letter from District Education officer which described that the error has been made by them and instructed the Opposite Party bank to transfer the amount to the rightful owner i.e.Hargun Enterprises. The Opposite Party bank informed the DEO that Rs.25000/- has already been withdrawn from the above mentioned amount and assured them to contact the account holder for further process. Thereafter Opposite Party bank had contacted Rajinder Singh and he personally came to bank branch of Opposite Party No.1 and when the Opposite Party bank enquired him that whether amount of Rs 403564/- credited to his daughter account on dated 25.07.2023 belongs to her? The said Rajinder singh had no suitable reply and admitted that he does not know from where this amount has come into his daughter's account. On asking that why he had then withdrawn the amount of Rs 25000/- if it did not belong to him or his daughter, he said that he will soon return and deposit the withdrawn amount. He came to the bank branch again with his relative and asked the Opposite Party No.1 that he need some time to deposit the withdrawn amount and no action be initiated against him till then. On dated 28.09.2023 Opposite Party bank received a letter from DEO about the update of the matter. Opposite Party bank had replied to DEO via mail that the amount of Rs 25000/- has not been deposited by said Rajinder singh and as soon as he would deposit the amount Opposite Party bank would remit the total amount to desired account. But despite many efforts said Rajinder Singh did not return the amount of Rs.25000/- and again on dated 10.10.2023 Opposite Party bank received a letter from DEO with a request to remit the balance amount soon to the account of Hargun Enterprises. The said Rajinder Singh was again contacted by Opposite Party No.1 personally, but he neither visited the bank branch nor he had paid the amount of Rs 25000/-. Averred further that a letter dated 11.03.2023 was served upon said Rajinder Singh (i.e. father of the complainant who withdrawn the amount) by the Opposite Party bank to this effect, but to no avail. In this way the OP bank had only rectified the error and wrong transaction made by DEO for the amount which is a Public money. Averred further that as per the record and evidence submitted by DEO, the amount of Rs 403564/- is a part of grants sanctioned by Government of Punjab for the purpose of giving School Uniforms to poor students of government schools in District Moga for the year 2023-2024, which inadvertently and wrongly credited to the account of complainant. On the other side Rajinder singh father of complainant has failed to submit any proof qua his/her ownership of this amount till now. All other allegations made in the complaint are denied and a prayer for dismissal of the complaint is made.

3.       Opposite Party No.2 appeared in person and contested the complaint by filing written reply taking preliminary objections therein inter alia that the present complaint is legally not sustainable in the present form as there is no deficiency in service on the part of the answering Opposite Party, rather the complainant by taking the undue advantage of wrongful transfer of the amount in their joint account, has withdrawn Rs.25,000/-with malafide intention and now to escape themselves from re-transferring the said amount in rightful account of the department of Opposite Party No.2 has filed the instant complaint which is legally not maintainable in the eyes of law; the complainant has no locus standi to file this complaint against the answering Opposite Party No.2 as no cause of action ever arose to the complainant against the answering Opposite Party; the complaint is bad for non-joinder and mis-joinder of necessary parties. The answering Opposite Party is only serving as Head Teacher, under Education Department, Punjab, so the complaint against the answering Opposite Party in her individual capacity is not maintainable; the complainant has concealed the true and hard facts from this Commission.

Averred that complainant Hargun Kaur is student of Government Elementary School, Machike, District Moga. As per the instructions of Punjab Government, for transferring the Scholarship and other Government Scheme money in their accounts directly, the complainant got opened joint account with her father Rajinder Singh, with Opposite Party No.1 Bank (since the complainant Hargun Kaur is minor, so the joint account opened with her father Rajinder Singh) so that the amount of government schemes could be transferred directly to the accounts of the concerned student i.e. account Hargun Kaur, Pay Code No. 9170051110661, Bank Name Punjab & Sind Bank, IFSC Code PSIB0000402, Account No. 04021000912843. As per the policy of Punjab Government, there was a scheme regarding providing uniform for Pre-Primary, Primary and Middle students of Government Schools and for this purpose, the Punjab Government vide its Order dated SAS Nagar dated 29.05.2023 allotted the budget to different DEOS (EE) of Punjab Schools for providing uniform for pre-Primary, Primary and Middle students of Government Schools. Since, the DEO Office, Moga through its Block Dharamkot-2, i.e. the concerned block have to purchase the uniform from Hargun Enterprises, Moga and for this purpose, as per the bill, they prepared bill dated 19.07.2023 for Rs.4,03,564/- to make the payment to Hargun Enterprises, Moga (from where the uniforms were to be purchased) and sent to District Treasury, Moga for payment, but due to clerical mistake, said amount was got transferred in the name of complainant Hargun Kaur, Pay Code No. 9170051110661, Bank Name Punjab & Sind Bank, IFSC Code PSIB0000402, Account No.04021000912843 instead of Hargun Enterpirses, Moga. This is purely a clerical mistake and there is no malafide and bad intention of the official concerned. As and when, the department has come to know that the amount has wrongly been transferred in the account of Hargun Kaur, complainant, the concerned officials immediately approached the Opposite Party No.1 bank and at that time it was surprising that Rajinder Singh, father of Hargun Kaur (complainant) has already withdrawn Rs.25,000/- out of this amount. But however, the remaining amount was got re-transferred to the account of Government immediately. Thereafter, the DEO Office, Moga through its concerned officials (Opposite Party No.2-Kulwinder Kaur) visited on so many occasions to father of complainant and made requests to re-transfer the said amount of Rs.25,000/- which was illegally withdrawn by him from their joint account, but instead of returning the said amount, said Rajinder Singh through his minor daughter Hargun Kaur (complainant) filed the instant complaint by concocting the false and frivolous story that both the Opposite Parties in collusion with each other have got transferred the remaining amount from their account. Thereafter, the officials concerned of Education department on so many occasions called Rajinder Singh father of complainant and not only this also wrote letters dated 29.01.2024 for depositing the amount of Rs.25,000/- which he has wrongly and illegally got withdrawn from the account of complainant. Initially, said Rajinder Singh admitted the rightful claim of Opposite Party No.2-Kulwinder Kaur in the presence of panchayat and agreed to return the withdrew amount of Rs.25,000/- within few days, but lateron he refused to return the amount and as such, there is malafide intention of father of complainant. Averred further that the father of the complainant has even failed to explain, who have send such huge amount in their joint account. There is no deficiency in service on the part of the answering Opposite Party No.2-Kulwinder Kaur, rather due to malafide and bad intention, the complainant has filed the instant complaint. On merits, all other allegations made in the complaint are denied and a prayer for dismissal of the complaint is made.

4.       In order to prove the case, complainant has placed on record his affidavit as Ex.CW1/A alongwith copies of documents Ex.C1 to Ex.C6.

5.       On the other hand, Opposite Party No.1 has placed on record affidavit of Sh.Virenderdeeep Singh, Branch Manager, Punjab & Sindh Bank as Ex.OP1/A alongwith copies of documents Ex.OP1/1 to Ex.OP1/17. Whereas Opposite Party No.2 has placed on record her affidavit as Ex.OP2/1 alongwith copies of documents Ex.OP2/2 to Ex.OP2/16.

6.         We have heard the ld. counsel for both the parties and also gone through the record.

7.       It is admitted and proved on record that the complainant is a student of Government Elementary School, Machike, District Moga and she is having account with Opposite Party No.1 Bank bearing no.04021000912843, which got opened at the instructions of Punjab Government for transferring the Scholarship and other Government Scheme Grants. It is also proved on record that vide its order dated 29.05.2023, Government of Punjab allotted budget to different DEOs (EE) of Punjab Schools for providing uniforms for pre-primary, primary and middle students of Government Schools and DEO office through its Block Dharamkot-2  has to purchase the uniforms from Hargun Enterprises, Moga and accordingly they prepared bill dated 19.07.2024 for Rs.4,03,564/- to make the payment to Hargun Enterprises, Moga, but due to clerical mistake, the said amount got transferred in the account of complainant Hargun Kaur i.e. Student of Government Elementary School, Machike, District Moga as the first name of the complainant and first name of the firm (Hargun Enterprises) are identical. It is further proved on record that when the department concerned noticed its mistake after due verification the Bank in question was instructed by the Education Department to transfer the said disputed amount into the account of its rightful claimant i.e. Hargun Enterprises.

The complainant in the present complaint has agitated the said transfer of the amount in question claiming the refund of the same in her account. Counsel for the complainant has also argued that the bank in question has failed to issue due notice to her before withdrawing the said amount in question. Counsel for the complainant has alleged that the Opposite Parties have played fraud upon her by conspiring each other and the amount in question has wrongly and illegally been withdrawn by Opposite Party No.1 on the instructions of Opposite Party No.2 and grabbed the said amount. It is been argued on behalf of the Opposite Party No.2 that the amount in question was sanctioned by the Government of Punjab to DEO Office for the purchase of uniforms for students of Government Schools in Punjab, which had mistakenly been credited in the account of complainant instead of Hargun Enterprise, from where, DEO office has to purchase the uniforms. Counsel for Opposite Party No.1 submitted that the disputed amount has rightly been withdrawn after following the due procedure under the instructions of the party concerned.

8.       We have given the due consideration to the admitted and proved facts on record and also have considered the rival contentions of the ld. Counsels for the parties and have gone through the record meticulously. It is admitted and proved on record that on 25.07.2023 an amount of Rs.4,03,564/- was credited into the account of complainant, which was later on withdrawn by Opposite Party No.1 Bank on the instructions of the Opposite Party No.2. At the time of arguments counsel for the complainant alleged that the amount in question belongs to her, which has illegally been withdrawn by Opposite Party No.1 Bank, but he failed to explain about the source of amount in question i.e. under which Government Scheme, she has received such a huge amount of Rs.4,03,564/-. Complainant has also failed to place on record any iota of evidence/ documentary proof or any affidavit claiming and proving that the amount in question pertains to her. Safely, it is concluded that the complainant miserably failed to prove that the amount in question belongs to her. Thus she has no right to claim the refund of the said amount in her account and the complaint filed for such relief becomes infructuous. On the other hand, Opposite Party No.2 has placed on record ample evidence, which clearly reveals that the disputed amount of Rs.4,03,564/- has mistakenly been transferred in the account of the complainant having identical name of Firm in question i.e. Hargun Enterprises. Perusal of the correspondence exchanged intra department is sufficient enough to hold that the disputed amount as claimed by the father of the complainant in actual is a part of budget amount issued by Government of Punjab to DEOs of Punjab Schools to provide uniforms to Pre-Primary, Primary and Middle Class Students of Punjab Government Schools, which was mistakenly deposited in the account of the complainant i.e. Hargun Kaur instead of M/s Hargun Enterprises.

9.       The other allegation of the complainant is that Opposite Party No.1 Bank without her consent and without giving any notice to her has withdrawn the said amount from her account, but this allegation of complainant is not genuine. In a duly sworn affidavit furnished by Sh.Virenderdeep Singh, Branch Manager of Bank in question, it is submitted that the Opposite Party No.1 Bank freezed the account of the complainant when it received the intimation qua the mistake been committed, which is deemed notice to the complainant. Further it is submitted that after freezing the account of the complainant, the father of the complainant was called upon to explain that whether the amount wrongly been credited into his daughter’s account belongs to her, he failed to prove the same. It is further submitted that he was also asked to refund the amount of Rs.25,000/- debited by him, which he withdrawn from the account on 14.08.2023 and 16.08.2023 respectively. From the correspondences exchanged placed on record, it reveals that when the complainant failed to deposit the amount wrongly been withdrawn, the Opposite Party No.1 Bank transferred the balance disputed amount in the rightful owner account under the lawful instructions. Reliance in this regard also placed on judgement of Andhra High Court in case Ganesh Cotton Traders  Vs.  The General Manager, UCO Bank dated 03.10.2012, in which, it held that:-

“In view of such mistaken transfer and in view of the letter dated 23.04.2012, addressed by the 3rd respondent to the 2nd respondent, where the petitioner operates his account, the account is freezed to realise the amount, which was mistakenly transferred to his account. In view of the provision under Section 72 of the Indian Contract Act, this Court is of the view that as the 3rd respondent-bank has committed an inadvertent mistake, it has rightly issued the letter dated 23.04.2012, to the 2nd respondent for freezing the account of the petitioner.”

10.     Sequel to the above discussion the instant complaint is hereby dismissed. However, it is also proved on record that from the disputed amount in question, the father of the complainant has already withdrawn an amount of Rs.25,000/-, despite knowing the said amount does not belong to her daughter, he is liable to repay the same. Hence, Opposite Parties are at liberty to approach the appropriate authority to get its amount refunded as per law. Keeping in view the peculiar circumstances of the case, the parties are left to bear their own costs. Copies of the order be furnished to the parties free of cost. File be consigned to record room after compliance.

Announced in Open Commission