On Mon, Dec 12, 2011 at 11:46 PM, Suresh Ramasubramanian <[email protected]>wrote:
> Sure. You approached your local bank officials and also their customer > service center > > This is a fit case for the banking ombudsman > > If that does not work hire a competent lawyer and follow his advice. > Googling up law terms is sort of like self medicating after reading up > websites and readers digest articles on various symptoms > > -- > srs (blackberry) > > -----Original Message----- > From: "." <[email protected]> > Sender: [email protected] > Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2011 17:46:11 > To: <[email protected]> > Reply-To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [silk] how does one take an Indian bank to court? > > On Mon, Dec 12, 2011 at 12:07, Anil Kumar <[email protected]> > wrote: > > > > You may want to briefly state the reasons for wanting to take the bank > > (and/or its employee) to court; as a consumer you can seek redressal from > > the bank's internal system then escalate it to the RBI Ombudsman; if that > > does not work, take the matter formally to the Consumer Forum. > > Thanks Anil. Are there any legal sites that list out the various > Indian penal clauses? I would like to read up some legalese and be > more informed before I take any action. I'm specifically looking for > past cases when individuals have taken Indian banks to court, so that > I can learn what clauses they are liable under. I remember reading a > few news reports over the years but Google was unhelpful, atleast for > the keywords I used. > > As for the reason: I wanted to wire some money to someone and the > bank** gratuitously debited my account (without my permission nor > authorization) for 5x the original amount and never bothered to > intimate me. I came to know only _after_ I got the quarterly statement > and only upon my following it up did they come up with a new claim > "XYZ charges" but have no explanation on why they were not upfront (I > was never given the numbers) about these specific charges and taxes, > ever. The worst part of this miserable experience, the person who I > sent the money to says he didnt get it. > > Fwiw, I'm not aware if the bank has any internal redressal system > other than emailing their support centre — I had emailed their > support/redressal id and they sent me a standard automated (unrelated > and useless) reply. When I met the local branch folks requesting a > reply, they tried to blame me, tried fobbing me off with a claim about > tax/bank charges, But, when questioned about the unauthorized debits > they had no credible answer on why (and under whose authorization) > they generously helped themselves to my money from my bank account > without informing me nor taking my permission _before_ debiting said > account. A few hours ago I got a call saying they discussed it > internally and agreed (to do me a favor?) and return some portion of > the money if I could just forget the rest and end this. > > For me, its about a bank intentionally and carelessly breaching > customer rights and privileges -- I dont think any bank has the > freedom to gratuitously debit my account without my permission nor > authorization. Most importantly, they broke the trust that I deposit > along with my money. Period. > > ** Can one name the bank publicly, before going the judicial way? Will > that break some Indian law that I am not aware of? > -- > . > > I agree with Suresh - this is a fit case for the banking ombusdsman (a mechanism that has been put in place by the RBI for resolving customer grievances). The longer route of arguing your case with the bank can lead the bank to putting a spin on its actions and waste a lot of your time; end of it all, you may win but the return will be modest and may not be worth the time and effort. You can look up some past cases at http://indiakanoon.org/; the RBI issues master circulars on an annual basis; these circulars contain regulations on various issues including functioning of banks - http://www.rbi.org.in/scripts/bs_viewmastercirculars.aspx - you might find some information here. You can also ask your bank (as a matter of right) to provide you a written document for customer grievance redressal; this will contain the procedure to be followed by you and will state the esclation mechanism if the issue is not resolved. - Anil Kumar
