April 16,2018:

Chennai State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (SCDRC) has ordered Bank of Baroda to compensate a sum of Rs 10 lakh to one of their customers, whose cheque they returned incorrectly citing lack of funds in the account seven years ago.

    Cheque Cases

Petitioner, M Rajesh Kumar, a businessman, moved the SCDRC seeking action against officials of the Triplicane branch of the bank where he had a current account. According to his petition, on November 11, 2011, he had issued a cheque amounting to Rs 7.09 lakh to a firm, Redington India, as payment for his business.

However, bank has rejected the cheque citing insufficient funds in account.

According to Petitioner, Bank did so despite sufficient funds in his current account.

However, Rajesh Kumar’s agony did not end there as the bank did the same thing yet again. In addition to this incident, two weeks later on December 9, 2011, the bank rejected another cheque worth Rs 1.3 lakh issued to the same firm.

Kumar, in his petition, stated that bank did not provide any reasoning for its action after which he sought the help of the SCDRC. In his petition, he said that the bank’s action badly affected his business and also spoilt the goodwill his company had earned among its customers.

He sought a compensation of Rs 25 lakh for the mental agony the bank had caused him.

Bench comprising Justice (Retd) Dr S Tamilvanan and K Baskaran, before whom the petition came for a final hearing ruled in favour of the businessman and directed the bank to pay a sum of Rs 10 lakh as compensation. The bench also slapped a fine of Rs 10,000 on the bank and ordered both the compensation and fine be paid within one month of the order.

Bench condemned the bank for its unfair trade practices.

Source TOI

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