ICICI fined Rs 25,000; told to compensate customer

ICICI Bank has been slapped with a fine of Rs 25,000 by a Delhi district consumer forum for wrongly deducting Rs 40,578 from the account of one of its customers.

Blasting the bank's act of wrongly deducting the money from its customer Mahesh Kumar's salary account as a breach of trust, the consumer forum --headed by its president B B Chaudhary -- asked the bank official to credit both the sum for the fine and the wrongly deducted money to his account.

"The official of the bank had come to know on or about July 11, 2009 that a mistake had been committed by debiting Rs 40,578.74 from the salary account of the complainant. Since then, more than two years have passed, yet the remedial measures have not been taken," the bench of district consumer forum -- also comprising its members M Siddiqui and S N Shukla -- said, criticising the bank's inaction and callousness.

. . .

A Central Delhi resident Kumar, who had an ICICI Bank account at its Gurgaon branch, got the shock of his life on July 11, 2007 after discovering that a sum of Rs 40,578 out of his account, having over Rs 49,000, had suddenly vanished.

On inquiry with the bank officials, it transpired the amount was deducted against a payment made through an ICICI Bank credit card of one Mahesh Kumar, who though, was the namesake of salary account holder Mahesh Kumar, but had different details like father's name and residential address.

Kumar, in his complaint, said he told the bank officials that he did not even own an ICICI Bank credit card, yet the bank has not bothered to credit the deducted money to his account till date.

The bench said the bank deducted the amount without verifying the particulars of the cardholder or its customer.

. . .

"The act of the bank caused financial losses to the complainant (Kumar). The amount of Rs 40,578.74 could have been used by him as per his wishes since June 29, 2009 till date. He could not do so because of the negligence on the part of the officials of the bank," the bench said.

It also said the bank could have deducted the amount from Kumar's account only if any amount was due from him.

"Since, the debited amount was not due from Kumar, therefore the bank caused breach in the trust of Kumar. It amounts to negligence and deficiency in service," the bench said.