BEFORE THE DISTRICT CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL FORUM-I, U.T. CHANDIGARH

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Madan Mohan Malhotra, s/o Late Sh.Ram Sharan Dass, Aged 65 years, r/o #3398, Sector 46-C, Chandigarh.

…..Complainant

                           V E R S U S

1]Standard Chartered Bank, SCO NO.137-138, First Floor, Sector-9, Madhya Marg, Chandigarh, through its Branch Manager.

2]Standard Chartered Bank, Consumer Banking, Customer Care Unit, Chennai, through its In-charge Officer.

                                  ……Opposite Parties

CORAM:  SH.JAGROOP SINGH MAHAL PRESIDENT

              SH.SIDDHESHWAR SHARMA  MEMBER

DR.(MRS) MADHU BEHL       MEMBER

Argued by: Sh. Ajit Singh, Adv. for complainant.

Sh. Sandeep Suri, Adv. for OPs

PER SHRI JAGROOP SINGH MAHAL, PRESIDENT

             Succinctly put, the complainant in the month of July 2005, got the Balance Transfer Offer of Rs.30,000/- from his credit card to other bank i.e. Citi Bank and the amount of Rs.30,000/- was transferred by the OP bank vide letter dated 16.07.05. The installment of Rs.995/- for 36 months was fixed to be paid by the complainant and a total amount which was to be paid by the complainant was Rs.35,820/- from July 2005 to July 2008 which comes to 36 installments. The complainant submitted that he deposited an amount of Rs.14,950/- from 2005 to July 2007 which was deducted from his bank account and further stated that OP bank also collected an amount of Rs.50,423 from him through their agents.  The complainant stated that a recovery team of OP approached him in the month of February 2008 and threatened that non-bailable warrants have been issued from Delhi Court against him and at the same time the recovery team gave a proposal of settlement of accounts upto Rs.40,000/- against Rs.55,558.67P. The complainant stated that he signed the proposal letter of settlement of accounts dated 18.02.08 to escape from the fear of non-bailable warrant and arrest. On 19.02.08, the complainant gave the amount of Rs.40,000/- to the recovery team of OP bank. The complainant later on came to know that against total amount of Rs.35,820/- i.e. an installment of Rs.995/- of 36 months from July 2005 to July 2008, the amount of Rs.65,373/- has already been recovered by OP bank upto the month of February, 2008, i.e. 5 months prior to the expiry of the loan period whereas in the month of February 2008, Rs.30,845/- was due(i.e. Rs.995 x 31 installments) to be paid by the complainant. After the complainant noticed, that he had paid excess amount of Rs.34,525/- to OP bank, he contacted OP-1 and OP-2 several times to refund the excess amount and was told many times by OP-2 that they were working on the query and would revert shortly but no positive response was sent by the OP bank till date. Hence this complaint alleging that the aforesaid acts of the OPs amount to deficiency in service and unfair trade practice and the complainant prayed that the OP bank be directed to refund the excess amount of Rs.34,525/- and pay   compensation towards mental torture and harassment caused to him.

2.             In their written reply OP-1 and OP-2 admitted the factual matrix of the case and stated that the payment was required to be made in accordance with the terms and conditions of the credit card which the complainant failed to abide and has purposely not produced on record, the monthly statement of accounts in respect of the said credit card. OPs stated that apart from the said transfer of the loan facility, the complainant was also enjoying the benefit of the credit card, that as per the document produced by the complainant, it was evident, that the amount to be paid by the complainant to the OP bank as on 19.02.08 was Rs.55,558.67P. After that it was mutually agreed between the complainant and OP bank, that on the payment of an amount of Rs.40,000/- the OP bank was ready to settle the dues payable by the complainant to the OP bank in full and final, though an amount greater than the same was payable to the bank. OPs further stated that the payment has been made by the complainant, in accordance with the letter of settlement and the settlement agreement has been signed by the complainant himself, after which the account of the complainant was settled in full and final. OPs lastly stated that the payments as made by the complainant are a combination of the balance transfer as well as the credit card. Denying all the material allegations of the complainant, OPs have prayed for dismissal of the complaint with costs. 

3.             Parties led evidence in support of their contentions.

4.             We have heard the parties and have also perused the record. 

5.             The contention of the complainant is that the OPs have taken from him more amount than was due, that he had been paying installments regularly and the OPs have charged from him Rs.34,525/- excess which amounts to an unfair trade practice on their part.  His contention is that the OPs should be burdened with Rs.2,00,000/- for mental torture and harassment and should refund excess amount of Rs.34,525/- alongwith Rs.7,000/- as miscellaneous expenses. The OPs have produced the account statements starting from Feb, 2006 now marked as Annexure R-1 (Colly).  The statements show that the complainant was paying the amount by cheque and had been issued two visa cards against which also he used to make purchases.  He was not even paying the minimum payment and every time this fact was pointed out to the complainant through the monthly statements that he had missed his minimum payment due and therefore the balance attracted finance charges. The card facility was temporarily suspended as is clear from the statements dated 06.02.06, 7.05.06, 6.09.06 and the card facility was ultimately cancelled as per statement dated 6.11.06.  He was then informed through the statement dated 6.12.06 that his name had been included in the defaulters list, which was a serious matter and affected his creditworthiness.  He was asked to contact the manager customer assistance.  This fact was repeated in all the remaining statements. The statements dated 6.02.08 shows that a sum of Rs.55,558.67P was due from him.  In order to recover their amount the OPs through their letter dated 18.02.08 Annexure C-9 told him that they were compelled to settle the credit card account and were constrained to  accept the payment of Rs.40,000/- only against a total outstanding of Rs.55,558.67P. The complainant agreed and readily came forward to deposit the said amount vide Annexure C-10.  The complainant was then informed vide letter dated 25.08.08 that there was no amount payable towards his credit card amount and he would not receive any statement in this regard. Ordinarily when the complainant had been receiving the account statements and knew that a sum of Rs.55,558.67P was due from him and he ultimately agreed to settle the account by paying a sum of Rs.40,000/-, he should have felt satisfied but he wrote a letter dated 18.09.08 Annexure C-12 that the OPs have received from him excess amount of Rs.37,000/- because only a sum of Rs.3,000/- was due from him.  The matter was inquired into by the OPs. The complainant however filed the present complaint to recover the said amount alongwith compensation and miscellaneous expenses. He however could not produce any document to suggest if he had been paying the amount regularly against the credit card statements which were being received by him.  He could not prove that the amount of Rs. 55,558.67P was not due from him on 6.02.08 or that only Rs. 3,000/- was due.  Otherwise also when the complainant agreed to settle the account for Rs. 40,000/- he would have verified the facts and agreed to the same only if the settlement was to his advantage.  However the greed of the complainant was not satisfied even by coughing Rs.15,558.67P which was given by the OPs as rebate. The present complaint has been lodged by the complainant due to that greed to harass the OPs and to garner the handsome amount of Rs.2,41,525/- in the shape of refund and compensation.  We are therefore of the opinion that there is no merit in this complaint which has been filed by the complainant with the malafide intention to harass the OPs and to enrich himself unduly at their cost.  We accordingly dismiss the complaint.

6.             Since the complainant has filed this complaint with malafide intention and the complaint is false and frivolous, the complainant is directed to pay to the OPs a sum of Rs.10,000/- towards the costs of litigation.

              Certified copies of this order be sent to the parties free of charge.  The file be consigned.