Haryana

Fatehabad

CC/495/2019

Juhari Lal - Complainant(s)

Versus

State Bank Of India - Opp.Party(s)

M.S Choudhary

02 Jun 2023

ORDER

BEFORE THE DISTRICT CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL COMMISSION, FATEHABAD

 

                                                          Complaint case no.         : 495 of 2019

                                                          Date of Institution           : 24.12.2019

                                                          Date of decision    : 02.06.2023

 

Johri Lal son of Ami Lal resident of village Bigher Tehisl & District Fatehabad.

……. Complainant.

 

 

1. Manager, Main Branch SBI Bank, Fatehabad.
2. Miss Ramandeep Clerk, SBI Main Branch, Fatehabad Dealing hand Credit Card.
3. Floor 12 DLF Infinity Towers C Block Building SBI Card &  payment Private Limited Office Incharge DLF Cyber City Gurugram, 122002, Haryana.

….…. Ops.

 

BEFORE:   SH. RAJBIR SINGH, PRESIDENT

                   SMT.HARISHA MEHTA, MEMBER      

                  

Present:       Ms. M.S.Chaudhary, Advocate for complainant.

                   Sh.Sanjeev Mehta, Advocate for Op No.1.

                   Op No.2 exparte vide order dated 31.01.2020.

                   Sh. Dushyant Gera, Advocate for Op No.3.

 

ORDER:

SH.RAJBIR SINGH, PRESIDENT

                   In nutshell, brief facts of the present complaint are that the complainant had received a call from bank for availing discount facility on purchasing through a credit card having limit upto Rs.5 lakhs; that the fee of said credit card would be Rs.499/- per year and the account number is 4335887856258452 with EV No.19114935851; that the complainant after believing the information applied for the credit card which was received by him on 25.04.2019; that thereafter the complainant came to know that the limit of credit card was upto Rs.10,000/-; that the complainant shopped for Rs.140/- and thereafter  made the payment of Rs.640/- alongwith fee; that thereafter he did not purchase anything but he received a massage on 24.10.2019 for depositing of Rs.3601 and 5486/- followed by another massage showing Rs.6530.60/- as due towards the complainant; that the Ops have not maintained the account of the complainant properly and even failed to reply his queries; that nothing is due towards the complainant and regarding this the complainant has requested the Ops, besides serving legal notices upon them, for not effecting the recovery of said amount but to no avail. The act and conduct of the Ops clearly amounts to deficiency in service and unfair trade practice on their part.

2.                          On notice, Ops No.1 & 3 appeared and filed their separate written statements. Op No.2 did not appear before this Commission despite service, therefore, it was proceeded against exparte vide order dated 31.01.2020.

3.                          Op No.1 in its reply has taken preliminary objections such as locus standi, maintainability, cause of action and suppression of material facts etc. It has been further submitted that the complainant is having saving bank account No.11117545523 with replying OP; that no offer has ever been given for getting credit card by the replying Op; that the Op No.1/bank has only given consent for auto debit facility to the credit card company from the alleged account, therefore, question of any deficiency in service and unfair trade practice does not arise at all on the part of replying Op. Other contentions made in the complaint have been controverted and prayer for dismissal of the complaint has been made.

4.                          Op No.3 in its separate reply has submitted that the present complaint is not maintainable being filed after concealing the material facts from this Commission as no assurance was ever given to the complainant with regard to limit of said credit card as Rs.5 lakh; that the outstanding dues, annual fees and transactions needs to be paid on time as per billing cycle but the complainant has not made the payment in time resulting into levying of extra charge amount;  that the present complaint has been filed just to avoid the payment of replying Op;  that the complainant is bound by the terms and conditions of the agreement but he himself has not adhered to the same. Denying other allegations as false and frivolous, the replying Op has prayer for the dismissal of the complaint.

5.                          In evidence, the complainant has tendered his affidavit as Ex.CW1/A alongwith documents Ex.C1 to Ex.C25. On the other hand, learned counsel for the Op No.1 has tendered affidavit of Sh.Bhaskar Kumar, Chief Manager as Annexure RW1/A alongwith document Annexure R1 and learned counsel for the Op No.3 has tendered affidavit of Sh.Punit Babbar, Authorised Representative as Annexure RW2/A alongwith document Annexure R2.

5.                          We have heard counsel for the parties and carefully gone through the case file.

6.                          Undisputedly, the complainant is maintain saving bank account  No.11117545523 with the Op No.1 (Annexure R1) and the complainant has also obtained credit card from Op No.3 (Annexure R2). The complainant has approached this Commission with two main pleas. The first one is that as per the assurance given by the Ops, the limit of the said credit card was upto Rs.5 lakhs but actually it was having limit upto Rs.10,000/- and the Ops  have cheated him and the second one is that nothing is due towards him as he has not purchased any articles by using the said credit card and the payment of the purchased items has already been made.

7.                          In order to prove his pleas the complainant has tendered his duly sworn affidavit supported with documents Ex.C1 to Ex.C25.  The contents mentioned in the affidavit are almost repetition of the contents made in the complaint.   It is a settled principle of law that the complainant has to stand on his own legs not on the legs of others. He has to prove his own case by adducing oral/documentary evidence to prove his case but in the present complaint, the complainant has miserably failed to prove his allegations and claims. Though the complainant has placed on record documents Ex.C1 to Ex.C25 but all these documents are not helpful to the complainant to prove the pleas raised by him before this Commission. From perusal of document Ex.C4, it is revealed that the annual charges for the said credit card was Rs.499/- besides CGST/SGST 44.91 each. The Op No.3 has come with the plea that the complainant has neither paid the annual charges nor deposited the requisite fee and in support of his plea he drew the attention of this Commission towards Ex.C4 to Ex.C23 (statements). Perusal of these documents clearly reveals the complainant himself is at fault for having insufficient funds, payment dishonor fee, late fee alongwith other charges which were mandatory to avoid the penalty/charges for maintaining the credit card. Moreover, the complainant has also not produced on record the terms and conditions/agreement duly received/executed at the time of obtaining the credit card to show that as to what kind of cheating, deficiency in service and unfair trade practice has been done with him.  

8.                          In view of the above mentioned reasons/discussions, we do not find any merits in this complaint, as the complainant has not been able to prove any deficiency in service and unfair trade practice on the part of Ops, therefore, the present complaint is hereby dismissed.  In the given facts and circumstances of this case, parties are left to bear their own costs. Copy of this order be supplied to the parties concerned, free of cost, as per rules, and thereafter, the case file be consigned to record room, as per rules, after necessary compliance. This order be also uploaded forthwith on website of this Commission, as per rules, for perusal of parties herein.

Announced in open Commission.                                                                 Dated: 02.06.2023

                                                                                               

                             (Harisha Mehta)                  (Rajbir Singh)                                                          Member                                President