The complainant/petitioner, who was holding an ATM card, checked the balance in his account at the SBI ATM, installed near Ganesh Talkies at 13.08 hrs. on 03.10.2011 and found that the balance in his account was Rs.54,500/-.  He again checked his balance on the same day at 2.14 P.M. with Punjab National Bank and found that the aforesaid balance at reduced to Rs.49,500/- and a sum of Rs.5,000/- had been debited in his account.  According to the complainant, he had withdrawn only Rs.1,000/- from the account.  When he approached the bank after Puja Holidays, he was advised to lodge a complaint with the customer care where his complaint was duly registered.  However, despite registration of the complaint, the amount of Rs.5,000/- which, according to the complainant had been wrongly debited in his account, was not credited back to the said account.  Being aggrieved from the failure of the bank to credit the aforesaid amount of Rs.5,000/- to his account, complainant filed a complaint before the concerned District Forum.

2.      The complaint was resisted by the opposite party, Punjab National Bank on the ground that it was not possible to withdraw cash through ATM unless the ATM card issued to the complainant was used along with the ATM Pin, which was known only to the complainant.  It was further stated in the reply that in fact the complainant had made two transactions of withdrawals one for Rs.5,000/- and other for Rs.1,000/- for which SMS alerts was also received by him.  According to the Bank, there was no possibility of a third person withdrawing cash using the ATM card unless the card along with the Pin was available to him.

3.      The District Forum having decided in favour of the complainant, the bank approached the concerned State Commission by way of an appeal.  Vide impugned order dated 25.09.2014, the appeal filed by the bank was allowed by the State Commission.  Being aggrieved form the order passed by the State Commission, the complainant is before us by way of this revision petition.

4.      The complainant/petitioner did not appear for the purpose of making his submissions.  He rather sent a letter to the Registrar of the Commission, requesting that the case may be disposed of on its merit.  We have therefore, examined the revision petition on its merit.

5.      It can hardly be disputed that no withdrawal from an ATM can be made unless the ATM card / debit card issued to the account holder is inserted in the ATM machine followed by use of the ATM Pin provided to the customer.  The ATM pin is known only to the customer and therefore, it is not possible for a third person to withdraw any cash through the ATM even if he is able to clone the ATM/debit card issued to the customer.  In fact the case before us, this is not the case of the complainant that he had lost the ATM card issued to him by the bank.  The said card was duly used at the ATM machine for making the transaction in question.  The ATM pin obviously, must have been used since no transaction at ATM machine is possible without use of the PIN.  Therefore, we cannot accept the contention of the complainant that the amount of Rs.5,000/- from his account was withdrawn by a third person and not by him.  Even if the said amount was withdrawn by a third person, he would have done it using the ATM card provided to him by the complainant and the ATM pin disclosed by him.

6.      Another suspicious circumstance in this case is that though the complainant claims to have come to know of the transaction on 03.10.2011 itself, no complaint was immediately lodged by him with the Bank.  The complaint came to be lodged only after Puja holidays on 07.10.2011.  Even if the branch was closed on 4^th, 5^th and 6^th October, 2011, the complainant could easily have lodged the complaint with the phone banking/customer care of the bank, which works even on holidays, atleast during the bank hours.

7.      For the reasons stated hereinabove, we find no ground to interfere with the order passed by the State Commission.  The revision petition is therefore, dismissed.