Haryana

Ambala

CC/250/2021

Rajesh Kumar Bukul - Complainant(s)

Versus

SBI Cards and Payment Service Ltd - Opp.Party(s)

Virendra Verma

19 Apr 2024

ORDER

BEFORE THE DISTRICT CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL COMMISSION, AMBALA.

Complaint case no.	:	250 of 2021
Date of Institution	:	16.08.2021
Date of decision	:	19.04.2024

 

Rajesh Kumar Bukal S/o Sh. Jagdish Ram Bukal, aged 53 years, R/o H.No.14, Partap Nagar, Mahesh Nagar, Ambala Cantt., Tehsil-Ambala Cantt., District-Ambala (UID No.7392-8361-3058).

……. Complainant

                                                Versus

1. SBI Cards and Payment Services Limited, Office: Unit 401 & 402, 04th Floor, Aggarwal Millennium Tower, E-1,2,3 Netaji Subhash Place, Wazirpur, New Delhi 110034.
2. State Bank of India through its Branch Manager, Branch- Mahesh Nagar, Ambala Cantt.

….….  Opposite Parties

Before:       Smt. Neena Sandhu, President.

                     Smt. Ruby Sharma, Member,

          Shri Vinod Kumar Sharma, Member.           

 

Present:-     Shri Aadesh Verma, Advocate, counsel for the complainant.

                   Shri Manish Kashyap, Advocate, counsel for the OP No.1.

                   OP No.2 already ex parte vide order dated 14.12.2021.

 

Order:        Smt. Neena Sandhu, President.

                   Complainant has filed this complaint under Section 35 of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Act’) against the Opposite Parties (hereinafter referred to as ‘OPs’) praying for issuance of following directions to them:-

1. To refund the illegally deducted amount of Rs.99,561/- alongwith 12% Interest till the date of realization and the illegal transaction of an amount of Rs.59814/- also.
2. To issue No Objection Certificate after settlement of Credit Card Account and to get update the same in CIBIL Report also.
3. To pay compensation to the tune of Rs.10,000/- as damages for "Deficiency In Service" and also Rs.10,000/- as cost of Litigation.
382.  

Grant any other relief which this Hon’ble Commission may deems fit.

 

2.             Brief facts of the case are that the complainant is Ex-Servicemen from Indian Air Force. He opened his Saving Account No.31074873071 in the Month of November 2010 with OP No.2 and remained the customer of OPs. A Credit Card No.5241827305051892 of OP No.1 was also issued to the complainant. After issuance of Credit Card on 27.06.2019 the complainant received a telephone call from Customer Care of the OPs for verification of Credit Card and the lady Customer Care herself disclosed the complete credit card number, Name on card to the complainant and on her assurance the complainant confirmed the demanded information, being the first time user of Credit Card. Thereafter the complainant got to know from Bank that on 27.06.2019 itself two unauthorized transactions have taken place from the account of the complainant total amounting to Rs.59814.00 which have been done from his Credit Card without any use by the complainant. After knowing about the unauthorized transactions of money, immediately the complainant reported the same telephonically to the Bank Customer Care and got registered complaint with them and requested to block the SBI Credit Card No. 5241827305051892. A portal link was provided to the complainant to lodge complaint as well as he was advised to register complaint with the bank through E-Mail also. The complainant followed the guidelines of RBI to report the unauthorized transaction within 72 hours immediately on the very same day and at the time of lodging the complaint assurance was given to the complainant that the matter will be resolved and the payment will be refunded back into the complainant's account very soon but to no avail. After blocking the previous SBI Credit Card, the OPs issued a fresh Credit Card No.5241827309060048 and that too without the consent of the complainant, whereas the complainant was already under shock due to previous unauthorized transactions done by SBI Credit Card Customer Care i.e. representative of OP No.1. The OPs  instead of redressing grievance by refunding the money, which was deducted unauthorizedly started deduction of money monthly payment as "Auto Debit" and interest over the deducted amount time and again. The complainant repeatedly reported the matter regarding the refund of unauthorized transactions of money, to the OPs and also requested them to stop deducting the amount from his saving account but to no avail. Now, the OPs instead of refunding the initial amount of Rs.59,814.00 which was deducted from the complainant's Credit Card and the OPs without asking the complainant illegally started "Auto Debit" the amount in the form of "Monthly Deduction for Credit Card" from the Saving Account despite written complaint to all officials to redress the grievance and refund of amount as well as to Stop the Credit Card. On 10.05.2021 also again another amount of Rs.10,454/- has been deducted from the saving account of the complainant despite request to stop the "Auto Debit" as well as to stop the Credit Card and to refund the illegally deducted amount. From June 2019 upto May 2021 total amount of Rs.99,561/- has been illegally deducted from account No.31074873071 of the complainant. Even OP No.2 sent e-Mail dated 27.04.2021 to the OP No.1 for redressal of grievance of the complainant alongwith all the letters but the matter has not been resolved. Thereafter, the complainant sent another email to Nodal Office of SBI Credit Card on 29.04.2021.  After waiting sufficiently the complainant was left with no other option except to serve the OPs with the legal notice dated 30.05.2021 to immediately refund the amount of Rs.99561/- illegally deducted from account No.31074873071 and to redress the grievance regarding the unauthorized Transaction through SBI Credit Card No.5241827305051892 but to no avail.   Hence, the present complaint.
3.           Upon notice, OP No.1 appeared and filed written version and raised preliminary objections to the effect that this complaint is not maintainable; the complainant has come to this Commission with unclean hands; no cause of action arose of the complainant to file this complaint; allegations of fraudulent transaction have been leveled by the complainant which can be decided by civil court only; the complaint involves complicated questions of  fact and law, which cannot be decided by this Commission etc. On merits, it has been stated that the transactions in question were not a fraudulent one, as alleged by the complainant as the transactions were valid transactions but the complainant wants to create pressure upon the  OP No.1 to accept his illegal demands. Further, it has been observed that the transactions have been performed in a secured manner as the same has been validated by card CVV and dynamic One Time Password (OTP) over the Internet/IVR. The dynamic One Time Password (OTP) was successfully delivered at the registered mobile number of the complainant. Any card not present (online/IVR) transactions cannot be done without confidential details of the card i.e. card expiry date, CVV wherein, OP No.1 always advise their cardholders not to share their card details i.e. card expiry date, CVV etc. to any third party. SBI Card has implemented Dynamic OTP as an additional factor of authentication for Online (3D) /Card not present transactions (CNP) providing enhanced level of security to all CNP transactions. The transaction details is given hereunder:-

Effective Date	Transaction Amount	Transaction Description
27/6/2019	19,907	WWW.MOBIKWIK.COM NEW DELHI IND
27/6/2019	39,907	WWW.MOBIKWIK.COM NEW DELHI IND

 

The extent of amount was debited over the card account as the complainant has availed the auto debit facility over his card account. It is the complainant who has not made the complete payment till date and filed the frivolous complaint to harass the OP No.1. Further, as on date 9.8.2022, a sum of Rs.1,43,198.83 is outstanding in the card account of the complainant. Rest of the averments of the complainant were denied by the OP No.1 and prayed for dismissal of the present complaint with exemplary costs.

4.           Upon notice, none has appeared on behalf of the OP No.2 before this Commission, therefore, it was proceeded against ex-parte vide order dated 14.12.2021.
5.           Learned counsel for the complainant tendered evidence of the complainant as Annexure CA-CA/1 alongwith documents as Annexure C-1 to C-6 and closed the evidence on behalf of complainant. On the other hand, learned counsel for OP No.1 tendered evidence of Rashmi Arora, Authorized Representative of OP No.1-SBI Cards and Payments Services Ltd. having Registered office at Unit 401 & 402, 4^th Floor, Aggarwal Millennium Tower, E, 1,2,3, Netaji Subhash Place, Wazirpur, New Delhi-110 034 as Annexure OP-1/A  and closed the evidence on behalf of OP No.1.
6.           We have heard the learned counsel for the complainant and learned counsel for the OP No.1 and have also carefully gone through the case file.
7.           Learned counsel for the complainant submitted that by not refunding the amount by OP No.1, which had been illegally deducted from the credit card of the complainant, as he never used the same and on the other hand, by deducting the installments qua the said amount from his saving bank account, the OPs have committed deficiency in providing service.
8.           Learned counsel for OP No.1 while reiterating its objections raised in the written version submitted that it has been observed that the transactions has been performed in a secured manner as the same have been validated card CVV and dynamic One Time Password (OTP) over the Internet/IVR. He further submitted that the dynamic One Time Password (OTP) was successfully delivered at the registered mobile number of the complainant and any card not present (online/IVR) transactions cannot be done without confidential details of the card i.e. card expiry date, CVV wherein, OP No.1 always advise their cardholders not to share their card details i.e. card expiry date, CVV etc. to any third party. SBI Card has implemented Dynamic OTP as an additional factor of authentication for Online (3D)/Card not present transactions (CNP) providing enhanced level of security to all CNP transactions. He further submitted that the amount was debited over the card account as complainant has availed the auto debit facility over his card account and it is the complainant who has not made the complete payment till date and as such, as on date 9.8.2022, a sum of Rs.1,43,198.83 is outstanding in the card account of the complainant.
9.           It may be stated here that in para No.4 of the complaint, it is stated that after issuance of credit card on 27.06.2019, the complainant received a telephone call from Customer Care of the OPs for verification of Credit Card and the lady Customer Care herself disclosed the complete credit card number, Name on card to the complainant and on her assurance the complainant confirmed the demanded information, being the first time user of Credit     Card. This admission of the complainant itself is sufficient to prove that he has shared the credentials of his credit card to some unknown person, who  posed him as customer care official of the OPs, whereafter only,  the amount totaling Rs.59814.00 was utilized from his credit card.   Thus, under these circumstances, the complainant is not entitled to any relief, firstly, because he had shared the credentials of his credit card to some unknown person without verifying from the OPs; secondly, he has failed to place on record any document to prove that he lodged any complaint within a period of three days qua utilization of the same amount through his credit card; and thirdly, he has failed to prove that the mobile number, on which, he shared his credential of credit card to some person, posing her as customer care representative of the OPs, actually  pertained to customer care of the OPs.
10.           It is therefore held that the OPs are not liable to compensate the complainant for his own gross negligence. Resultantly, this complaint stands dismissed with no order as cost. Certified copies of the order be sent to the parties concerned as per rules.  File be annexed and consigned to the record room.

Announced:- 19.04.2024.

 

(Vinod Kumar Sharma)	(Ruby Sharma)	(Neena Sandhu)
Member	Member	President