A dishonoured cheque: Boon or bane?

The District Consumer Grievances Redressal Forum has directed the State Bank of India to pay Rs 2,000 as compensation for deficiency in services for wrongly crediting a cheque.

Complainant unable to purchase shares after State Bank of India wrongly credited a cheque, bank argues that lapse saved complainant from loss due to fall in share prices

The District Consumer Grievances Redressal Forum has directed the State Bank of India to pay Rs 2,000 as compensation for deficiency in services for wrongly crediting a cheque. As a result, the complainant was unable to purchase shares and moved the forum alleging loss and mental agony.

Interestingly, the bank8217;s counsel argued that the mistake had instead saved the complainant as the fall in share prices would have resulted in huge losses had the cheque been honoured.

The complainant, Parvesh Chander Avasthy, had two savings accounts in the State Bank of India.

In 2007, he applied for shares of Power Grid Corporation of India at the rate of Rs 52 per share.

For this, Avasthy moved two applications, one in his name and the other in the name of his son, Gaurav. Along with the applications, he submitted two cheques of Rs 97,500, a debit voucher and a credit voucher for transferring Rs 65,000 from his savings account to his current account on September 13, 2007.

But one of the cheques was returned unpaid by the bank citing insufficient funds.

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As a result, Avasthy8217;s application for allotment of shares was rejected. Upon inquiry, the complainant discovered that the bank had wrongly transferred an amount of Rs 6,500 instead of Rs 65,000 from his savings account to the current account.

In its reply, the bank stated that the amount had wrongly been credited due to an oversight.

8220;The mistake was neither willful nor intentional,8221; stated the bank.

Ruling in favour of the complainant, the forum directed the bank to cross-check all account entries so that such like instances are not repeated. However, keeping in view the present scenario of the market, the forum decided to keep the compensation low.