ICICI Bank was directed by the West Bengal State Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission to compensate for harassing a customer by asking to pay interest rate without the loan being granted. Kolkata based Sri Kalyan Kumar Sur, a customer with ICICI bank was repeatedly asked to pay interest on a loan which was never availed by him. Sur had taken Gold Credit Card from ICICI Bank with an add-on card in the name of his wife. He had made transactions with the card from December 2004 to November 2005 and since then been involved into an argument with the bank which mentions an alleged late payment. All of sudden the monthly credit card statement of November 2005 showed the outstanding amount as Rs 43,267.95 which increased to Rs 47,024.52 in the month of January. On seeking information from bank regarding this amount, Sur took a loan of Rs33,500 from the bank on the basis of his card in April 2005 and was debited to his account. He objected for having taken any of such loan but was left in vain by the bank authorities. Following this he approached the District Consumer Redressal Forum at Kolkata. The forum investigated the matter and found that no such loan was availed by the complainant. The forum therefore directed the bank to reverse all the entries in the credit card statement and also pay Rs 1,00,000 as compensation charges. On the other hand, the bank claimed to the state commission that the customer was granted a loan of Rs33,500 by the bank which was availed as part of advances against his existing credit cards. However the bank could not produce the transaction papers on its defense. Also as per the RBI guidelines, there is an instruction that explains that if a person refuses to accept a loan, the bank should withdraw all consequent penalty and action against him but no such actions were ever followed. To keep with the forum's order, the compensation has been reduced to Rs30,000 from Rs 1,00,000 by the commission. Besides, there is an order for sending the judgment copy to the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India. |
