A claim of Rs 500,000 made by a resident in Thane from the HSBC bank and the City Bank for their alleged deficiency in services was dismissed by the Thane Additional District Consumer Dispute Redressal Forum following expiry of claim period.
Forum president M G Rahatgaonkar and Member Jyoti Mandhale observed in their order that the complainant had not filed the complaint within the specified time frame (the case pertains to 2006) and hence it was being disposed off.
Belapur Resident Manish N Sharma, informed the Forum that he possessed two credit cards one of the HSBC and the other of the City Bank.
As he had to fly to Cochin he tried to book flight tickets for three persons on Mumbai-Cochin route alongwith the return by Kingfisher Airlines through the online booking facility but the tickets could not be booked using both the cards.
He further said that HSBC had shown a sum of Rs 10,050 as expenses on the tickets and the City Bank had shown Rs 1,04,000 on the same head.
In addition, ABN Ambro card showed a sum of Rs 20,100 and from Standard Chartered Bank a sum of Rs 10,050 had been shown as expenses.
He told the forum further that even when the tickets could not be booked both the banks made the demand for this money from him.
He also said that the entire confusion came to light from the statements of the banks for the period 14/06/2006 to 13/07/2006.
Later City Bank refunded the amount of Rs 60,000
However both HSBC and City Bank started chasing him for the pending amount.
He further told the Forum that the banks informed the Credit Information Bureau India Ltd about his outstanding as a result of which when he applied for a credit card with the Punjab National Bank, for business purposes, it was refused.
On account of the humiliation he had to face, he demanded Rs 5,00,000 as compensation from banks.
The complainant, following the refusal by PNB took up the issue with both the banks on January 24, 2011 and wanted a resolution which did not not come through and hence filed a complaint with the consumer forum.
The Forum discussing the complaint opined that the complainant was aware of the mess up in 2006 itself and he had time up to 2008 to file a complaint which he did not not do.
However, when CIBIL had reflected his outstanding which affected the issue of new credit card to him, he preferred to make this complaint which cannot be entertained.
Its time expired and hence needs to be dismissed, the Forum said.
The complainant argued that the date of occurrence be taken as January 24, 2011 when he had sent a notice to the banks.
However, the Forum dismissed his suggestion and held that the complainant was well aware of the issue way back in 2006 itself, and hence the complaint is time barred.
The Kingfisher Airlines and the CIBIL were also made respondents in the case.
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