SBI penalised, told to pay relief to customer

Tribune News Service
Ambala, December 18

The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, Ambala, has directed the SBI to give Rs 50,000 as compensation and also to pay its customer the amount that was wrongly withdrawn by a person who had the same name and a similar bank account (issued by the bank mistakenly).

According to information, Nirmal Singh approached the forum and claimed that in February 2017, he was intimated that a cheque has been cleared and approximately Rs 64,000 was lying deposited in his account while he had Rs 1.23 lakh in the account. On enquiry, it came to his knowledge that Rs 59,000 had been withdrawn on three occasions while the complainant had not withdrawn the amount.

On April 26, 2017 he was told that Rs 61,300 had been withdrawn, while he had not made any such transaction.

On notice, the opposite parties (SBI branch and regional managers) had said the account was not of the complainant. Rather, it was of Nirmal Singh, son of Mansa Singh of Munreheri village. They claimed that the complainant was trying to mislead the forum on the basis of a forged passbook.

The forum in its orders said: “From the evidence as well as admission of Nirmal Singh, son of Mansa Singh of Munreheri, that the amount does not belong to him and he is ready to deposit the same with the bank, this forum is of the considered view that the complainant is having an account with the bank and it has carelessly issued two passbooks bearing the same account number in the name of the two different persons - Nirmal Singh, son of Arjun Singh (complainant) and other person Nirmal Singh son of Mansa Singh, both residents of Munreheri village. The bank also failed to clarify how two passbooks had been issued to two different persons bearing same account number.”

DN Arora, president of the forum, said: “The bank was directed to pay Rs 59,000 and Rs 61,300 along with the interest rate of savings account. The opposite parties are also directed to pay Rs 50,000 to the complainant on account of mental agony and harassment.”