Order by:

Smt.Priti Malhotra, President

1.       The complainant has filed the instant complaint under section 35 of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 stating that complainant approached Punjab and Sind Bank, Godhewala, Moga for Gold Loan in the month of May, 2023, but the said bank refused to give gold loan to the complainant with the reason that one suit has been filed against the complainant by the Opposite Parties in one auto loan which is shown in complainant’s CIBIL report. In order to clarify, whether his CIBIL report is showing that some suit has been filed against the complainant, he checked the CIBIL report vide report dated 29.05.2023 and it showed that one suit has been filed against the complainant by Opposite Parties. Thereafter the complainant visited the office of Opposite Party no.3 to inquire about the said fact, as he never made any default in paying any installments in any loan previously taken, but the record of Opposite Party No.1shown that one suit is filed against the complainant and the same is incorporated by the Opposite Parties in his CIBIL report regarding one car loan taken by the complainant in the year, 2011 from Opposite Party No.1 vide loan account no.31578945092, which had to be paid in 5 years from the date of obtaining it, but the complainant completed that loan within a period of 4 years and loan account was closed by the Opposite Parties as fully paid. Alleged that the complainant was awestruck to know about the fact that he would not be able to get gold loan as his CIBIL report is not up to the mark. In fact he never ever made any defaults in paying any previous loans. Thereafter the complainant wrote to Opposite Party No.3 about the said fact and requested to rectify their mistake and make necessary corrections in the CIBIL report of complainant, vide application dated 09.06.2023, but to no effect. Further the complainant made complaint against Opposite Party No.3  via e-mail on 01.07.2023 before Opposite Party No.2 to resolve the grievances and Opposite Party No.2 registered the complaint of complainant vide Ticket no.262273754 dated 02.07.2023 and assured the complainant that the same will be resolved within 10 days from the date of complaint registered. Thereafter, the complainant made a reminder to Opposite Party No.2, through e-mail dated 12.07.2023, who replied to contact the account maintaining branch for further assistance. Accordingly, the complainant visited Opposite Party No.3  to get the solution of the grievances of the complainant, but Opposite Party No.3  was adamant and rude to perform its duty.  Complainant again mailed Opposite Party No.2 regarding the said fact on 20.07.2023, but of no use and eventually no one put forward any effort to delete the wrong entries made by Opposite Parties. The complainant also served a legal notice dated 02.08.2023 upon Opposite Parties, but to no effect. Thereafter, the complainant again wrote to Punjab and Sind Bank, Godhewala, Moga, vide letter date 04.09.2023, which the said letter was replied by it writing on the same letter that the gold loan of complainant was rejected by Punjab and Sind Bank, Godhewala, Moga due to CIBIL issues, as CIBIL of complainant shows suit filed against complainant. Alleged that due to such act and conduct of the Opposite Parties, the complainant has suffered loss of reputation, harassment and mental agony. Hence, this complaint. Vide instant complaint, the complainant has sought the following reliefs:-

a)       Opposite Parties may be directed to pay a sum of Rs.20,00,000/- alongwith interest @ 18% p.a. as damages and compensation for causing loss of reputation, harassment and mental torture alongwith future interest @ 18% per annum till actual realization and to correct the CIBIL report of complainant or any other relief which this Commission may deem fit and proper be granted to the complainant in the interest of justice and equity.

2.       Opposite Parties appeared through counsel and contested the complaint by filing written reply taking preliminary objections therein inter alia that the present complaint is not maintainable; this Commission has got no jurisdiction to try and decide the present complaint; the complainant has got no locus-standi to file the present complaint; the complainant has concealed the actual and material facts from this Commission. Averred that as a matter of fact complainant has taken a car loan of Rs.5,00,000/- from Opposite Party No.3 and the said loan account has been closed on 18.09.2014. When the complainant complained about the dispute, then he was asked to provide the copy of Aadhar Card, Pan Card and report of CIBIL given by Punjab & Sind Bank and sanction letter of said car loan, so Opposite Parties may look into the matter. The CIBIL report is automatically generated by the CIBIL department and same was not feeded by the Branch. The complainant issued the notice to the Opposite Parties and Opposite Parties given the reply to it mentioning to provide the copy of Aadhar Card, Pan Card and report of CIBIl given by Punjab & Sind Bank and sanction letter of said car loan, so Opposite Parties look into the matter, but complainant did not submit the said documents to the Opposite Parties and filed the present complaint. The Opposite Parties appeared in the present complaint on 17.10.2023 and as per the directions of this Commission to provide the above said documents to the Opposite Parties. The said documents alongwith forwarding letter were forwarded to the concerned Equifax through proper channel of the bank to do the needful. There is no negligence delay or deficiency on the part of the Opposite Parties. The Opposite Parties immediately forwarded the documents on 18.10.2023 for doing the needful regarding the above said matter. It is the responsibility of Equifax to do the needful. The Opposite Parties generated the CIBIL report of complainant on TransUnion CIBIL on 26.10.2023. Averred further that the complaint is bad for non jointer of necessary party and the Equifax is proper and necessary party. On merits, all other allegations made in the complaint are denied and a prayer for dismissal of the complaint is made.

3.       In order to prove the case, the complainant has placed on record his affidavit Ex.C1 alongwith copies of documents Ex.C2 to Ex.C12.

4.       On the other hand, Opposite Parties have placed on record affidavit of Sh.Inder Bir Jit Singh, Chief Manager/Principal Officer, State Bank of India as Ex.OPs1 alongwith copies of documents Ex.OPs2 to Ex.OPs4.

5.         We have heard the ld. counsel for both the parties and also gone through the record.

6.       The case of the complainant is that he approached Punjab and Sind Bank, Godhewala, Moga for Gold Loan in the month of May, 2023, but the said bank refused to give gold loan to the complainant for the reason that in the complainant’s CIBIL report, the status (suit filed) is shown. In order to clarify, the complainant checked the CIBIL report vide report dated 29.05.2023 and it showed that one suit has been filed against the complainant. Thereafter the complainant visited the office of Opposite Party no.3 to inquire about the same, the record of Opposite Party no.3 also proved this fact. Contended that one loan was taken by the complainant regarding the car in the year, 2011 from Opposite Party No.1 vide loan account no.31578945092, which has to be paid in 5 years from the date of availing it, but the complainant completed that loan within a period of 4 years and loan account was closed by the Opposite Parties as fully paid. Submitted that the complainant never made any default in paying any previous loans. Thereafter the complainant requested the Opposite Party No.3 to make necessary corrections in the CIBIL report of complainant, vide application dated 09.06.2023. The complainant also made a complaint against Opposite Party No.3  via e-mail on 01.07.2023 before Opposite Party No.2 to resolve the grievances of complainant and Opposite Party No.2 registered the complaint of complainant vide Ticket no.262273754 dated 02.07.2023. The complainant also made a reminder to Opposite Party No.2, through e-mail dated 12.07.2023. Thereafter, the complainant visited Opposite Party No.3 to get his grievances redressed and again sent a mail to Opposite Party No.2 regarding the said fact on 20.07.2023, but the Opposite Parties failed to delete the wrong entries made by them in the CIBIL report of the complainant. Counsel for the complainant has submitted that the complainant has suffered a lot of harassment due to the wrong mentioning of ‘Status’ in the CIBIL record of the complainant.

7.       On the other hand, ld. counsel for the Opposite Parties contended that the complainant has taken a car loan of Rs.5,00,000/- from Opposite Party No.3 and the said loan account has been closed on 18.09.2014. The complainant was asked to provide the copy of Aadhar Card, Pan Card and report of CIBIL given by Punjab & Sind Bank and sanction letter of said car loan in order to look into the matter. The complainant issued a notice to the Opposite Parties and Opposite Parties given the reply to it and asked the complainant to provide the documents already demanded by Opposite Parties, but the complainant did not submit the documents to the Opposite Parties and filed the present complaint. Contended that the Opposite Parties appeared in the present complaint on 17.10.2023 and the complainant was directed to provide the said documents to the Opposite Parties. Then on receipt of the documents, the Opposite Parties immediately forwarded the said documents to the concerned Equifax for doing the needful. The Opposite Parties generated the CIBIL report of complainant through TransUnion CIBIL on 26.10.2023.

8.       The record is evident of the fact that the complainant approached Punjab and Sind Bank, Godhewala, Moga for Gold loan, but said bank refused to give the gold loan to the complainant on the ground that in the CIBIL record of the complainant status shown as ‘Suit filed’. It is also evident on record that complainant approached the Opposite Parties several times for redressal of his grievance, but the grievance of the complainant was not addressed. Evidently , the complainant has filed the present complaint in order to get necessary corrections in his ‘CIBIL report’ from the Opposite Parties.

9.       It is pertinent to mention that when the Opposite Parties appeared before this Commission, they undertook to get corrected the CIBIL report of the complainant qua mentioning of ‘suit filed’ in the CIBIL status of the complainant, subject to the submissions of documents. Thereafter on demand the complainant supplied the requisite documents to the Opposite Parties i.e.  copy of Aadhar Card, Pan Card and report of CIBIL given by Punjab & Sind Bank etc. On receipt of the documents the Opposite Party Bank further submitted the same to the department concerned to get CIBIL report of the complainant set right, which was generated through TransUnion CIBIL dated 26.10.2023, the perusal of the same reveals that the grievance of the complainant has been redressed and now there is no mentioning of ‘Suit filed’ in the CIBIL status of the complainant. Since the main grievance of the complainant has been resolved by the Opposite Parties and now the issue qua compensation and litigation expenses is being agitated by the Opposite Parties claiming that the complainant has suffered as lot due to the wrong mentioning of CIBIL Status. Counsel for the complainant states that the complainant had suffered huge financial loss on account of wrong mentioning of the Status Report, but failed to produce on record any supporting document.

10.     From the record, it reveals that complainant after repaying the disputed loan in the year 2014 numerous times taken loan on one account or the other and also successfully repaid all. Record transpires that the complainant himself came to know about the wrong mentioning of his CIBIL Status when he applied for Gold Loan in the year, 2023 and provenly the Opposite Parties failed to get the status of the complainant rectified within reasonable time, when approached. It is evident on record that in reply to the legal notice issued by the complainant, the Opposite Parties demanded certain documents from the complainant, which he failed to supply. But since the complainant was already exhausted with the ineffective functioning of the Opposite Parties filed the present complaint and during the pendency of the complaint, the grouse of the complainant was resolved.

11.     We are of the concerted opinion that the demand of the complainant for compensation and litigation expenses is genuine. Not only the Opposite Parties failed to redress the grievance of the complainant in time but at the same time they are held negligent for wrong entry in the CIBIL status of the complainant without any fault attributable on his part.  Thus, taking into consideration the record available and the submissions made, we quantify the loss of the complainant to the tune of Rs.5,000/-.

12.     From the discussion above, the present complaint is allowed in part and Opposite Parties are directed to pay compository costs of Rs.5000/-(Rupees Five Thousand only) as compensation and litigation expenses to the complainant for rendering deficient services. The pending application(s), if any also stands disposed of. The compliance of this order be made by the Opposite Parties within 30 days from the date of receipt of copy of this order, failing which, the Opposite Parties are further burdened with additional cost of Rs.2000/-(Rupees Two Thousand only) to be paid to the complainant for non compliance of the order. Copies of the order be furnished to the parties free of costs. File is ordered to be consigned to the record room.

Announced on Open Commission