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2011 DIGILAW 172 (SC)

Haryana Gramin Bank v. Madan Lal

2011-01-31

ASOK KUMAR GANGULY, G.S.SINGHVI

body2011
ORDER : G.S. Singhvi, J. This petition is directed against the order of the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (for short, 'the National Commission') whereby a batch of revisions filed by the petitioners against the orders passed by the State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, Haryana (for short, 'the State Commission') were dismissed. 2. The respondent filed complaint under Section 12 of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 (for short, 'the Act') alleging deficiency in service on the part of the petitioners. The respondent claimed that he had opened savings bank accounts in the bank and deposited certain amount but when he wanted to withdraw the amount, the bank officials did not entertain his request. He further averred that some bank officials fabricated the records and withdrew the amount deposited in his account and for the acts of its officers/officials, the bank was liable. In two cases, the complainant alleged that he had deposited certain amount in fixed deposit but when he wanted to withdraw the same, the bank authorities declined to entertain his request. 3. The petitioners contested the complaint by asserting that the bank cannot be held liable for the wrong doings of some officers/officials. The petitioners relied upon the entries in the ledgers showing withdrawal of the amount from the account of the complainant and from the FDRs and pleaded that the complainant cannot take advantage of the absence of the corresponding entries in the passbooks, more so because he had himself made interpolations and inflated the amount deposited in the bank. 4. The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, Ambala (for short, 'the District Forum') allowed the complaint and directed the petitioners to pay the amount shown in the passbooks and FDR receipts of the complainant and also pay interest at the rate of 10%, compensation of Rs. 1,000/- and cost of Rs. 500/-. 5. The appeals preferred by the petitioners were dismissed by the State Commission, which referred to large number of judgments including the judgment of this Court in State Bank of India v. Shyama Devi, (1978) 3 SCC 399 . The observations made by the State Commission in the case of Naib Chand are extracted below: "Having considered the rival contentions of the learned counsel for the parties we do not find any force in the contention of the appellants-opposite parties. The observations made by the State Commission in the case of Naib Chand are extracted below: "Having considered the rival contentions of the learned counsel for the parties we do not find any force in the contention of the appellants-opposite parties. The authorities relied upon by him are not attracted to the facts of the present case. It is a case where the officials of the bank have been charged for committing fraud embezzlement of the bank funds. On holding of departmental enquiry these officials of the bank were found guilty for committing of fraud and embezzlement with the customer/loanee who have deposited the amount with the bank we are therefore of the view that the authorities produced by the complainant reveals that the relation inter-se the Master and the servant who can be held vicariously liable for their act committed on behalf of their Master/Bank. The authorities titled as State Bank of India v. Smt. Shyama Devi, AIR 1978 SC 1263 , Bank of India v. Deepak Jaiswal, 2002 (1) Civil Procedure Code 579, and Allahabad Bank v. Shiv Swarup Srivastav, 2007(1) Civil Procedure Code 296, (supra) are fully attracted to the facts of the present case. The complainant cannot be put to financial loss despite the fact that he never withdrawn an amount of Rs. 1,30,500/- from his account. It is often noticed that the officials of the bank have now started committing fraud with various customers who deposit the amount. In order to curb this menace stringent & hard punishment should be awarded to such officials who are not faithful to their Masters (Bank) while discharging their official duties. The bank is vicariously liable to adjust the amount in the loan account of the complainant as ordered by the District Forum. We are, therefore, of the view that the complainant has been rightly granted the relief by the District Consumer Forum, Ambala with respect to Rs. 32,407/- and we have no reason to differ with the observations made by it." 6. The National Commission dismissed the revisions filed by the petitioners by observing that in the absence of entries in the passbook and other papers showing withdrawal of the amount, it was for the bank to prove that the entries in ledgers reflected actual withdrawal of the amount by the complainant, but no evidence was produced to prove this fact. The National Commission dismissed the revisions filed by the petitioners by observing that in the absence of entries in the passbook and other papers showing withdrawal of the amount, it was for the bank to prove that the entries in ledgers reflected actual withdrawal of the amount by the complainant, but no evidence was produced to prove this fact. The National Commission further observed that in the case of fake withdrawal of the amount mentioned in the FDRs the bank did not produce any evidence of disbursal of the amount. 7. We have heard Shri U.C. Mittal, learned counsel for the petitioners, who made strenuous efforts to convince us that the orders passed by the District Forum, State Commission and the National Commission are liable to be set aside because the complainant had inflated the amounts by taking advantage of the fact that there were handwritten entries in the passbooks. 8. In our opinion, the concurrent finding recorded by the three consumer foras on the issue of the petitioners' liability to reimburse the respondent do not suffer from any legal infirmity. Admittedly, the bank has lodged first information report against its Branch Manager, Mr. Pawan Kumar and some other officials and the same is pending. It is also not in dispute that the petitioners did not produce any evidence to prove that even though there were no entries in the passbooks showing withdrawal of the amount deposited by the complainant in the savings bank accounts or by way of FDRs, he had, in fact, withdrawn the amount, as reflected in the ledgers maintained by the bank. Therefore, we do not find any valid ground much less justification to interfere with the impugned order. The petitioner is vicariously liable for the wrong doings of its officials/employees which resulted in monetary loss to the respondent and the consumer foras did not commit any error by entertaining and allowing the complaint filed by him and dismissing the appeals and revisions filed by the petitioners. The argument of the learned counsel that the complainants had made manipulations in the passbooks cannot be entertained because no evidence was produced by the bank to prove the factum of manipulations. 9. In the result the special leave petition is dismissed. 10. Learned counsel for the petitioners requests for four weeks' time to enable his clients to pay the amount due to the respondent. 11. 9. In the result the special leave petition is dismissed. 10. Learned counsel for the petitioners requests for four weeks' time to enable his clients to pay the amount due to the respondent. 11. In view of the statement of the learned counsel, we direct the petitioners to pay the amount due to the respondent within a period of four weeks from today and submit a report to this effect in the District Forum within next two weeks. If the District Forum finds that the petitioners have not complied with this direction, then it shall suo motu initiate proceedings against the bank and its officers under Section 27 of the Act. 12. The Registry is directed to forward a copy of this order to the Presiding Officer, of the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, Ambala (Haryana).