DISTRICT CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL FORUM-II
Udyog Sadan, C-22 & 23, Qutub Institutional Area
(Behind Qutub Hotel), New Delhi-110016
Case No.1162/2007
Smt. Gloriana Kamal Charan
B-1263, 2nd Floor, Front Side,
Greenfield Colony,
Faridabad, Haryana ….Complainant
Versus
SBI Cards & Payment Services Pvt. Ltd.
State Bank of India, Local Head Office
11, Parliament Street, New Delhi-110001 ….Opposite Party
Date of Institution : 01.11.07 Date of Order : 09.08.17
Coram:
Sh. N.K. Goel, President
Ms. Naina Bakshi, Member
ORDER
The case of the complainant, in nutshell, is that she was working as Asstt. Nursing Superintendent in Kasturba Gandhi Hospital, Daryaganj and the complainant had a salary account with OP; that believing the assurance and the brand name of the OP the complainant took a credit card No.4317575704639427 from the OP; that the complainant had been using the credit facility of the bank and paying dues amount and interest etc. promptly without any delay or default; that as she was going to retire in March, 2007 she made a request to the OP for the closure of the credit account on 07.02.2007 and also made all the payments of outstanding dues as on date; that it was assured by the OP staff that her credit card account had been closed and there was no outstanding dues left in her account; that after the closure of her credit card account she received the next bill in the month of March, 2007 for 79 paise; that she immediately called to the customer care of the OP and requested to immediately issue a no due certificate in her favour but, however, she further received bills for the months of April, May & June, 2007 for Rs.79 paise; that she again approached the OP through its customer care and made objection and requested for immediate closure of the credit card account and issuance of no dues certificate to which staff of the OP assured her that she should not worry and ignore the said bill but no action was taken by the staff of OP; that thereafter she further received a bill for the month of July, 2007 amounting to Rs.10,632/- which showed opening balance as 79 paise and total due amount was mentioned as Rs.10632.62 with due date of 23.07.07 wherein the OP malafidely debited Rs.10,000/- which was never taken by the complainant; that the aforesaid transaction was shown to have taken place on 08.09.2006. It is submitted that if the said transaction had taken place in the month of September 2007, then why the said amount was not reflected in the subsequent bill for the period of October, 2006 to June, 2007. The OP further debited Rs.280.90/- as a SBI ATM Cash fee and further deducted Rs.352.51/- as interest charges cash advance. It is submitted that the complainant had already closed her credit card in the month of February, 2007 and hence the deduction of amount SBI ATM cash fee and further interest charge of cash advance was wrong and malafide. The complainant subsequently received several threatening calls from the OP wherein the complainant was threatened to be implicated in civil and criminal proceedings if she did not make the payment of alleged outstanding due amount. In the meanwhile, the complainant received the subsequent bill for the month of August, 2007 amounting to Rs.11,406.47p in which the OP further levied the interest of Rs.393.26p as non payment on due date, Rs.3.15 interest charges purchases and Rs.377.44p as interest charges cash advance. Complainant alongwith her ailing husband met with one Sh. Saurabh, at its Headquarter, Gurgaon who directed the complainant to make the payment of Rs.10661/-. It is submitted that the dealing staff of the OP specifically admitted that Rs.399.26p which was levied for fee payment not received by due date and Rs.352/- which was levied for interest charge cash advance was illegal and hence the same was deducted from the total amount of Rs.11406.47p for the bill of August, 2007 but the staff of OP did not withdraw the amount of Rs.10000/- which was illegally charged by the OP in the month of August, 2007 as directed by the staff of OP. It is submitted that having no other option, the complainant made the payment of Rs.10,661/- vide cheque No.499117 dated 20.08.2007. It is submitted that the grievance of the complainant was never ending and she again received a bill for an amount of Rs.201.28p for the month of September, 2007. Thereafter, the complainant received a letter dated 03.10.2007 from OP wherein she was threatened to make the payment of illegal bill of Rs.604.15p failing which the OP would initiate legal action against her. Hence, pleading deficiency in service on the part of the OP, the complainant has filed the present complaint for issuing the following directions to the OP:-
- Direct the OP to refund the amount of Rs.10661/- alongwith other miscellaneous charge which was illegally received from the complainant,
- Direct the OP to issue non due certificate in respect of the credit card to the complainant,
- Direct the OP to pay Rs.40,000/- to the complainant as damages towards the harassment and mental agony suffered by the complainant due to deficient service of OP,
- Direct the OP to pay Rs.15,000/- to the complainant as litigation cost.
In the written statement the OP has inter-alia stated that the OP issued a credit card No.4317575704639427 to the complainant. It is denied that the complainant had requested for closure of the credit card on 07.02.2007 as alleged. It is stated that the record maintained by the OP reveals that the complainant had made only part payments as per every statement of account issued to her. It is stated that the account of the complainant is still active since the entire outstanding as per the latest statement of account has not been paid. It is submitted that the statements filed by the complainant herself prima-facie show that the entire payments under the credit card have not been made by her as alleged. It is submitted that since the account of the complainant was not closed, therefore as per the policy of the OP the statements of account were issued to the complainant regularly. It is submitted that the OP provides the credit facility to its customers through the credit cards. As a business practice adopted by the OP the company pays the amount payable to the merchandiser immediately upon receiving the transaction slip which is issued upon usage of the credit card by the customer. In the present case, upon receiving the transaction slip from the merchandiser i.e. State Bank of India, N S Margr Nagar from where the cash of Rs.10,000/- was withdrawn by the complainant, the OP debited the account of the complainant. It is stated that perusal of the statement dated 03.07.2007 reveals that Rs.10,000/- was debited from the complainant’s account for the transaction dated 08.09.2006 alongwith Rs.280.90p charged towards SBI ATM Cash Fee and Rs.352.51p towards the finance charges and, therefore, the total outstanding as per the statement dated 03.07.2007 was Rs.10632.62p after adjusting the aforesaid transaction and opening balance of 79 paise. It is denied that the said transaction dated 08.09.2006 was wrongly entered. It is submitted that the confirmation for the aforesaid transaction was received by the OP late i.e. only on 06.06.2007 and hence the same is reflected in the statement dated 03.07.2007 which cannot be refuted by the complainant. It is submitted that though payment of Rs.10,661/- was made by the complainant which is duly credited to her account, the entire outstanding was not paid and hence the charges were being levied. There arises no question of issuing the no dues certificate to the complainant until the entire amount is not paid off and the account closed. OP has prayed for dismissal of the complaint.
Complainant has filed a rejoinder.
Complainant has filed her own affidavit in evidence. On the other hand, affidavit of Sh. Sheel Ratna Sinha, Manager (Legal) has been filed in evidence on behalf of the OP.
Written arguments have been filed on behalf of the parties.
We have heard oral arguments on behalf of the complainant and have also gone through the file very carefully.
In her affidavit, the complainant has marked the documents as Ex. CW-1/1 to Ex. CW-1/5. As seen in majority of cases coming before us we find that the Exhibit Nos. have not been given on their respective documents. Anyhow, the complainant has not filed any convincible evidence on record to show that she had got her credit card in question closed on 07.02.07 and hence the demand in question of the OP was unjustified. The onus to prove this issue was on the complainant and we hold that she has failed to discharge her burden to prove this fact.
In view of the above discussion, we do not find any merit in the complaint and dismiss it with no order as to costs.
Let a copy of this order be sent to the parties as per regulation 21 of the Consumer Protection Regulations. Thereafter file be consigned to record room.
Announced on 09.08.17.
