The State Bank of India has been held guilty of deficiency in service by a Delhi consumer court for a seven-year-delay in refunding the money a person had deposited in his Public Provident Fund account thereby causing him agony.
"The deposit remained with the opposite party, SBI for more than seven years. and by this act of the OP, the complainant, V N Sehgal has suffered a great loss," District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum (North Delhi) president N K Chopra, members Neeru Mittal and S C Jain said.
The consumer court asked SBI to refund the Rs 3,98,484 with nine per cent interest besides compensation of Rs 25,000 for mental agony and litigation cost of Rs 2,000.
Sehgal, in his complaint filed on January 15, 2003, said SBI had accepted deposit of Rs 5 lakh on March 1, 1995 in his PPF account. SBI operated his account without his consent and withdrew Rs 4.4 lakh and Rs 5,08,851 on May 13 and on August 7 of 2002 respectively, he alleged.
Though SBI refunded Rs 1,10,367, they did not return the balance amount of Rs 3,98,484, he said. SBI contended that Sehgal was not a consumer as defined under the Consumer Protection Act and that he had wrongly deposited Rs 5 lakh in his PPF.
But the court rejected this saying "SBI claims to be an agent of government of India. It was very much necessary for such an authority to be vigilant and to act in accordance with the law."
The court said if the bank had maintained vigilance and care, it would have stopped Sehgal from depositing more than the prescribed limit in his PPF account.
"There is no explanation from SBI as to why the deposit of Rs 5 lakh had been accepted and credited to the PPF account of the complainant and why it was retained for more than seven years and why interest was credited to it from time to time", the consumer court said.
"There is a complete silence by SBI on the question of yearly audits being conducted," it said, adding that the plea of SBI that the complainant is not consumer was "not acceptable" as he is "very much a consumer as per the Consumer Protection Act in this case".
"SBI is a premier banking financial institution of the country and an account holder normally believes that his interests will remain well protected by the bank and the bank will exercise abundant caution in providing quality services to its customers," the consumer court said.
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