Chennai: The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, Chennai (South), directed a nationalised bank to pay a compensation of Rs 25,000 to a savings bank account holder for rejecting his cheque made towards credit card payment.
The State Bank of Mysore, Shastri Nagar, dishonoured the cheque despite there being sufficient credit in his account.
Forum’s president V. Gopal and member, L. Deenadayalan observed that the bank’s act amounted to deficient service and it should pay Rs 25,000 for causing mental agony to the account holder and Rs 5000 towards cost within six weeks.
The petitioner A. Silambarasan of Royapettah had opened a savings bank account with cheque facility with the State Bank of Mysore, Shastri Nagar branch, and obtained a credit card from ABN Amro Bank.
On September 24, 2008, Silambarasan had issued a cheque for Rs 77.27, drawn in favour of his credit card account of ABN Amro Bank.
Despite having a sufficient amount in his account, the State Bank of Mysore returned his cheque.
Subsequently, the ABN Amro Bank collected Rs 500 from Silambarasan as ‘returned cheque handling fee’.
Silambarasan, in his petition, had sought a payment of Rs 1.87 lakh for the mental agony caused and towards cost.
The State Bank of Mysore replied that the cheque was returned ‘due to insufficient funds’ on October 3, 2008 through human error, committed under pressure of work, and it regretted the mistake. It said that it was not aware of the returned cheque handling fee charged by ABN Amro Bank and hence, could not be held responsible.
