NCDRC

NCDRC

RP/3945/2014

HARJIT SINGH - Complainant(s)

Versus

PUNJAB NATIONAL BANK & ANR. - Opp.Party(s)

MR. DINESH MADRA

07 Nov 2014

ORDER

NATIONAL CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL COMMISSION
NEW DELHI
 
REVISION PETITION NO. 3945 OF 2014
 
(Against the Order dated 08/07/2014 in Appeal No. 1183/2013 of the State Commission Punjab)
1. HARJIT SINGH
S/O SH.SOHAN SINGH, R/O HOUSE NO-23,WARD NO-8, BASSI, PATHANA
DISTRICT: FATEHGARH SAHIB
PUNJAB
...........Petitioner(s)
Versus 
1. PUNJAB NATIONAL BANK & ANR.
(PHASE I, BRANCH), THROUGH BRANCH MANAGER,
SAS NAGAR, MOHALI
PUNJAB
2. THE STATE BANK OF PATIALA,
BRANCH BASSI PATHANA , THROUGH BRANCH MANAGER,
DISTRICT : FATEHGARH SAHIB
PUNJAB
...........Respondent(s)

BEFORE: 
 HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE V.K. JAIN, PRESIDING MEMBER
 HON'BLE MR. DR. B.C. GUPTA, MEMBER

For the Petitioner :
Mr. Dinesh Madra, Advocate
For the Respondent :

Dated : 07 Nov 2014
ORDER

JUSTICE V.K. JAIN, PRESIDING MEMBER (ORAL)

1.      The complainant/petitioner, who claims to be a carpenter by profession had savings bank account with State Bank of Patiala, Branch Bassi Pathana, District Fatehgarh Sahib, Punjab. He was accorded the facility of withdrawal through ATM and for this purpose an ATM card was issued to him by the said bank. According to the complainant/petitioner, on 06-07-2012 he along with a friend namely Surjit Singh went to the ATM booth of the opposite party No.1-Punjab National Bank at Mohali for withdrawing a sum of Rs.5,000/-. After he had inserted the ATM card inside the machine, an unknown person entered the ATM booth. The aforesaid person offered to help the complainant in withdrawing cash through the ATM. In good faith, the complainant took his help. It is stated in para 7 of the complaint that the aforesaid person helped the complainant in withdrawing Rs.5,000/- in four attempts. The first transaction was blank and he handed over the blank statement to the complainant, with an apology that he had forgotten to enter the amount. Then two attempts were made for withdrawing Rs.2,000/- and Rs.3,000/- respectively. After that the aforesaid person handed over the cash and asked the complainant to check the amount of Rs.5,000/- which had already been withdrawn. While the complainant was counting the cash the aforesaid person deceitfully changed the ATM card of the complainant by another similar card.

          According to the complainant, after taking the aforesaid cash amounting to Rs.5,000/- he went to his work place at village Malakpur where negligible or no signal of mobile phone was available. He also claims that no such signal was available either inside or outside his house. As a result, the complainant could not read the SMSs sent to him between 06-07-2012 to 21-07-2012. Later, when the complainant reached his home, he came to know about the fraudulent transaction of Rs.3,42,000/- which had taken place in his account during the period from 06-07-2012 to 21-07-2012. He visited the concerned branch and on the advice of the Branch Manger the bank account was got blocked by him. The complainant, thereafter, visited the concerned police station and lodged a complaint reporting the aforesaid fraudulent transaction. Thereafter, the complainant again met the concerned Branch Manager on 23-07-2012 and on his advice he obtained statement of account from another branch of the bank since renovation work was going on in the home branch. He was also informed by the Branch Manager that the ATM card he was carrying, was not issued by their bank.

2.      Alleging deficiency in service on the part of the Punjab National Bank by not deploying a guard outside the ATM booth, the complainant approached the concerned District Forum seeking refund of the amount of Rs.3,42,000/- which was withdrawn from his account along with interest on that amount at the rate of 12% per annum. He also sought compensation amounting to Rs.15,00,000/- and cost of litigation amounting to Rs.25,000/-.

3.      The complaint was resisted by Punjab National Bank inter alia on the grounds that the complainant was not supposed to hand over his ATM card to a stranger and, therefore, he was negligent in handling the said card issued to him by the bank. It was also stated in the reply that as per RBI guidelines no security guard was required to be posted at the ATM booth opened in the premises of a branch of the bank. It was also pointed out in the reply that ATM pin is known only to the account holder and without the complainant having shared the same with the aforesaid stranger, no withdrawal from his account could have been made. Thus, the stand taken by the bank was that since the complainant himself was negligent in handling the ATM card and sharing the ATM pin with a stranger it was not liable to compensate him.

4.      The District Forum vide its order dated 11-09-2013 directed the Punjab National Bank to refund the amount of Rs.3,42,000/- to the complainant, along with interest on that amount at the rate of 9% per annum. The bank was also directed to pay Rs.10,000/- as compensation and Rs.5,000/- as cost of litigation, to the complainant.

5.      Being aggrieved from the order of the District Forum, the Punjab National Bank approached the concerned State Commission by way of an appeal. Vide impugned order dated 08-07-2014, the State Commission allowed the appeal filed by the Punjab National Bank and set aside the order passed by the District Forum. Being aggrieved from his complaint being dismissed, the complainant is before us by way of this revision petition.

6.      Two questions primarily arose for our consideration in this case. The first question is as to whether there was any deficiency on the part of the bank in rendering services to the complainant and secondly whether the loss to the complainant took place on account of the said deficiency.

7.      For the purpose of deciding the issues we proceed on the assumption that the petitioner/complainant was a consumer of Punjab National Bank despite the fact that the savings bank account had been opened by him with State Bank of Patiala and the ATM card which is alleged to have been misused for withdrawal from his bank account was also issued by the same bank. According to the complainant, the Punjab National Bank was under an obligation to depute a security guard outside the ATM booth where he was cheated by the aforesaid stranger. It has come in the reply by Punjab National Bank that as per RBI guidelines no guard is required to be deployed outside the ATM booths which are located within the premises of the branch of the bank. It is not in dispute that the ATM booth where the complainant claims to have been deceived was situated in the branch premises of Punjab National Bank. No evidence has been led by the complainant to prove that the said bank was required to deploy a guard even outside the ATM booth situated in the premises of a branch of a bank. Therefore, the complainant has failed to prove any deficiency on the part of the Punjab National Bank, in this regard.

8.      More importantly, a careful perusal of the complaint would show that either the complainant had handed over the ATM card and disclosed the ATM pin to the stranger who entered the ATM booth or he had himself used the ATM pin in the view of the aforesaid stranger. A careful analysis of para 7 of the complaint clearly shows that in fact it was the stranger who had not only inserted the card but also entered the ATM pin for the purpose of withdrawal of card from the ATM. Even if it was not so and the complainant had himself entered the ATM pin, he would still be negligent since he was not expected to enter the ATM pin in the view of a stranger. ATM pin is supposed to be memorized by the account holder and he is not expected either to share it with a stranger or to use it in the presence of a person who is unknown to him. Had the complainant not either shared the ATM card and the pin with the stranger or not inserted the card and entered the ATM pin in his presence and in his view, it would not have been possible for the aforesaid person to know the pin allocated to the complainant. Had that been done, the aforesaid person would not have been able to use the ATM card even if he had changed the said card by another card by deceiving the complainant. Therefore, from whatever angle we may look at it, the aforesaid incident took place solely on account of negligence of the complainant.

8.      It is claimed in the complaint that from 06-07-2012 to 21-07-2012, no signal was available either in the open/outside the house or on the roof of the house where the complainant was working and consequently he was not able to read any SMS sent to him during the aforesaid period. No certificate or communication from the concerned mobile service provider was filed by the complainant to prove that no mobile signal was available at the place where the complainant claims to have worked from                 06-07-2012 to 21-07-2012. In the absence of such an evidence, we cannot accept the claim of the complainant that no mobile signal at all was available in his phone between 06-07-2012 to 21-07-2012. The learned counsel for the complainant submits that an affidavit from the Sarpanch of the village where the complainant was working was filed in this regard. However, such an affidavit would not be an appropriate evidence to prove the non-availability of the mobile signal which could be proved only by producing a communication from or producing an official from the concerned mobile service provider.

9.      For the reasons stated hereinabove, we find no merit in the revision petition and the same is hereby dismissed. It goes without saying that it will be open to the complainant to avail such civil and/or criminal remedy as may be available to him in law against the person who deceived him in the above-referred manner.

 
......................J
V.K. JAIN
PRESIDING MEMBER
......................
DR. B.C. GUPTA
MEMBER

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