A consumer court in Bangalore city has penalised two banks — one private and another public sector — in two separate cases related to deficiency of service with regard to transactions through ATMs.
Direction to banks
The State Bank of India’s RPC Layout branch in Bangalore was directed to pay Rs. 10,000 with 12 per cent interest per annum to a customer for debiting Rs.10,000 from his account even though his attempt to withdraw the amount at an ATM had failed.
Similarly, ING Vysya Bank’s Indiranagar branch in the city was directed to pay Rs. 40,000 along with an interest of 12 per cent per annum to a customer as the bank failed to address his complaint about fraudulent withdrawal of Rs. 40,000 from his account through an ATM in Maharashtra even though his ATM-cum-debit card was in his possession in Bangalore.
Gangadhar, who had a savings account in SBI’s RPC Layout branch, in his complaint, said he tried to withdraw Rs.10,000 from a Canara Bank ATM at Kunigal on February 2, 2013. However, he could not do so as he got a slip stating “transaction declined, unable to process” from the ATM. Yet, to his horror, he found that Rs.10,000 had been deducted from his account.
On his complaint, the SBI took up the issue with Canara Bank through online complaint management system and the latter intimated that the transaction was successful contrary to the claim of the complainant.
Interestingly, the Third Additional Bangalore Urban District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum came across confusing details from the two banks. In his complaint, K.V.C. Muralitharan, an account holder at ING Vysya Bank, stated that on the night of April 25 earlier this year, he got an SMS alert about withdrawal of Rs. 40,000 cash in four instalments of Rs.10,000 each from his account. He claimed that on a complaint made to bank’s call centre, it was told to him that cash was withdrawn from an ATM at Thane in Maharashtra on that day. He alleged that bank’s Indiranagar branch failed to redress his grievance.
Ex-parte order
As the bank even failed to respond to its notice, the Third Additional Bangalore Urban District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum passed an ex-parte order.
