CC Filed on 04.12.2010
Disposed on 18.05.2011
BEFORE THE DISTRICT CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL FORUM, KOLAR.
Dated: 18th day of May 2011
PRESENT:
Sri. G.V.HEGDE, President.
Sri. T.NAGARAJA, Member.
Smt. K.G.SHANTALA, Member.
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Consumer Complaint No. 233/2010
Between:
Sri. S. Gopalakrishna, S/o. late Sundareshan, Aged about 59 years, Retired SBM (VRS), R/at. Door No. 5/132, Kandavarpet, Chickballapur – 562101. | ….Complainant |
V/S 1. The Deputy General Manager, State Bank of Mysore, Bangalore Zone-II, Head Office, Bangalore - 09. 2. The Branch Manager, M/s. State Bank of Mysore, B.B. Road, Chickballapur 562 101. | ….Opposite Parties |
(By Advocate Sri. V. Sreedhara Murthy)
ORDERS
This is a complaint filed under section 12 of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 praying for a direction against the opposite parties to pay Rs.50,000/- compensation towards physical and mental agony suffered by the complainant and to pay costs of this litigation.
2. The material facts of complainant’s case may be stated as follows:
That the complainant was an ex-employee of the State Bank of Mysore. He took voluntary retirement on 31.12.2001 when he was working in the State Bank of Mysore, Chikkaballapur Branch, Chikkaballapur.
The complainant was having a Public Provident Fund Scheme Account No. 54039376014 opened on 16.03.1995 at State Bank of Mysore, Chikkaballapur Branch, Chikkaballapur (OP.2). The said PPF Account was due for closure on 31.03.2010. The complainant was provided with a pass book in respect of the said PPF Account. The complainant withdrew Rs.20,000/- from his PPF Account on 06.04.2005 and it appears he got updated the entries in his pass book till that day and the balance available in his account as on that day was Rs.38,816/-. It appears subsequent to 06.04.2005 he had not carried any transaction in his PPF account and it appears he approached OP.2-Bank in the middle of March 2010 for updating his passbook. It appears then he found an entry dated 14.03.2006 debiting Rs.20,000/- to his account and other credit entries in respect of crediting the interest on March 31st of every subsequent year from 2006 to 2010. The complainant gave representation dated 16.03.2010 alleging that the debit entry for Rs.20,000/- dated 14.03.2006 was a wrong debit entry and that he had not withdrawn that amount and requested to make the required correction and to pay the said amount of Rs.20,000/- with interest. He got issued legal notice dated 29.05.2010 alleging that the said wrong debit entry was not corrected till then evenafter giving the representation dated 16.03.2010 and requesting to effect correction of wrong entry within 7 days from the date of receipt of the notice. Subsequently he addressed letter dated 24.07.2010 to the Deputy General Manager, State Bank of Mysore, Bangalore alleging that the wrongful debit entry for Rs.20,000/- dated 14.03.2006 was not rectified even after 5 months and his PPF Account has not been settled so far. The complainant again made another representation dated 16.08.2010 to D.G.M of State Bank of Mysore, Bangalore. It appears the grievance of the complainant was not met and the complainant finally made a representation dated 06.10.2010 to the Banking Ombudsman in Karnataka, Bangalore. In the meantime by letter dated 27.09.2010 OP.2-Bank intimated to complainant that the wrong debit entry of Rs.20,000/- was reversed on that day and credited the amount with interest to his PPF Account. By letter dated 11.11.2010 the Office of the Banking Ombudsman (Karnataka) intimated complainant that his complaint was closed as the Bank has reversed the wrong entry of Rs.20,000/- and it has also credited the account of complainant an amount of Rs.8,189/- towards interest. It was intimated to complainant under the said letter that the said authority cannot award legal and other expenses and damages to complainant and he can approach any other Forum in this regard. Thereafter the complainant filed the present complaint.
3. The OPs appeared and contested the claim of complainant. OP.2 filed version. It is admitted that complainant is having PPF Account with OP.2 and the said account was due for closure on 31.03.2010 and that they received representation dated 06.03.2010 alleging that the debit entry dated 14.03.2006 for Rs.20,000/- was not a valid debit entry. They also admitted the receipt of legal notice and other representations of complainants. It is contended that soon after the receipt of representation dated 16.10.2010 OP.2 found that there was debit entry dated 14.03.2006 of Rs.2,000/- and started to trace the old records to ascertain if the said withdrawal of Rs.20,000/- on 14.03.2006 has infact been made by complainant or whether it was an erroneous entry as claimed by him. Further it is contended that as already 4 years had lapsed by then, it was difficult to obtain the records and verify the old records from among the records at the Branch and inspite of the busy schedule of the Branch the officials of the Branch took their best efforts to search the records. Further it is contended that the PPF accounts were maintained manually at the Branch upto 20.04.2005 and thereafter the accounts were switched over to a software called “Bank Master” and further migrated to Core Banking Solutions (CBS) whereby the data was centralized at Core Data Centre at Mumbai. Further that there occurred technical and teething problems at the time of conversion and that the wrong debit entry in the account of complainant was the result of such process of switch over to Bank Master and further migration to CBS and the error which occurred was purely technical in nature. Further it is contended that the Branch could not trace any voucher among the records in respect of the said debit entry which occurred on 14.03.2006 and on being satisfied that the error had taken place while switching over to the computerized accounting system, the said wrong debit entry was rectified on 27.09.2010 and the complainant was informed accordingly and his account was credited with Rs.8,189/- on 21.10.2010 towards interest for the period from March 2006 to September 2010. Therefore the OPs have contended that there is no negligence on their part and they had taken prompt action within reasonable time. Hence they prayed for dismissal of complaint.
4. The parties filed affidavits and documents. We heard the parties.
5. The following points arise for our consideration:
Point No.1: Whether there is deficiency in service by OPs?
Point No.2: To what order?
6. After considering the records and the submissions of parties our findings on the above points are as follows:
Point No.1: The complainant had opened PPF Account with OP.2 on 16.03.1995. The said account was due for closure after 15 years i.e. in the month of March 2010. The complainant must have updated the entries in his pass book till 06.04.2005 when he withdrew Rs.20,000/- from the said account. The balance as on that day was Rs.38,816/- after withdrawal of Rs.20,000/-. When subsequently the pass book was updated for other entries mostly in the month of March 2010, the complainant found that there was another debit entry dated 14.03.2006 for Rs.20,000/- and he complained on 16.03.2010 that the said debit entry was a wrongful entry and that should be rectified.
The OP.2-Bank rectified the said alleged wrongful entry on 27.09.2010 and credited Rs.20,000/- to the account of complainant and on 21.10.2010 it also credited interest of Rs.8,189/-. It appears as per the endorsement found in the pass book the total balance of Rs.57,831/- was paid to complainant on 23.10.2010 by closing the PPF Account.
As on 31.03.2010 the admitted balance in the PPF account of complainant was Rs.29,642/-. There was no difficulty for OP.2-Bank to pay this amount to complainant. It appears as the verification was pending regarding the debit entry of Rs.20,000/- dated 14.03.2006 no amount was paid to complainant even after the PPF Account becoming due for closure. The better course for OP.2-Bank was to pay the admitted amount soon after the due date and that the disputed amount could have been paid at a later stage after verification of records.
The complainant had given representation dated 16.03.2010 alleging that the debit entry dated 14.03.2006 was a wrongful debit entry. That was rectified nearly after 6 months on 27.09.2010 after verification of records. We think the delay of 6 months in rectifying the wrong debit entry cannot be condoned on the ground that the said delay was essential to verify the records. It may be true that the said delay may not be an inordinate delay. Apart from it existence of a wrongful debit entry in an account for whatever reason is to be considered as deficiency in service. We also found there is some delay in rectifying it. Hence we hold point No.1 in affirmative.
Point No.2: The OP.2-Bank has paid Rs.8,189/- towards interest on Rs.20,000/- for a period of nearly 4½ years. Therefore it appears the interest was paid at the rate of 9% p.a. We think in the facts and circumstances of the case, a sum of Rs.1,000/- may be awarded to complainant towards compensation and costs. Hence we pass the following:
O R D E R
The complaint is allowed. The OPs shall pay Rs.1,000/- to complainant towards compensation and costs, within one month from the date of this order.
Dictated to the Stenographer, corrected and pronounced in open Forum this the 18th day of May 2011.
MEMBER MEMBER PRESIDENT
