Jabalpur: It might sound weird but it is true that Jabalpur youth Nishant Tamrakar fought a seven-year-long legal journey for just Rs 295. A nationalised bank had deducted the amount which might have been noticed by many but Tamrakar challenged it in the district consumer forum and on Friday it pronounced a verdict in favour of him asking the nationalised bank to return the wrongly deducted amount along with compensation and imposing a fine on the financial institution.
Tamrakar, a resident of Panagar in Jabalpur, purchased a washing machine with financing from a well-known financial company. His account in the State Bank of India was linked to the EMI account for the auto-deduction of monthly dues. Despite having a sufficient amount for an instalment payment, an amount of Rs 295 was charged additionally along with the instalment. Tamrakar immediately got in touch with the finance, Bajaj Finance, to enquire about the excess deduction, to which they said it was the bank which charged the amount.
Tamrakar approached the bank's grievance cell to file a complaint about the same, to which the branch manager said the deduction was towards the cheque bounce charge. A dazed Tamrakar said the cheque didn't bounce and there was no possibility of it as he always maintained a sufficient amount in the account. To this, the bank couldn't come up with a plausible reply, forcing Tamrakar to solicit legal opinion.
On the solicitation of Advocate Rohit Paigwar who informed Tamrakar that the matter could be raised with the consumer forum along with the court and lawyer's fees of about Rs 3,000, the latter filed the case in Jabalpur Consumer Forum in 2017. The hearing dragged on as the bank failed to respond to the commission. After seven years of ordeal, the forum acknowledged that the amount was wrongly deducted by the bank and ordered it to reimburse the amount with a compensation of Rs 4,000 for the expenses incurred and the mental agony suffered by the complainant
"The consumer forum has written in its order that the bank should return Rs 295 to Nishant along with the advocate's expenses. Along with it, an amount of Rs 2,000 should also be deposited in his account for the mental torment he had to undergo in past seven years. If the bank does not comply with the verdict within two months, then the concerned officer will have to shell out a penalty of Rs 10,000 and the forum can also award a sentence of three years to the concerned officer," Paigwar, Tamrakar's lawyer, said.
"The consumer forum has asked the bank to return my Rs 295 along with Rs 4,000. I am not getting any benefit from this and neither will I take this money. My sole intention was to teach the bank a lesson through the court that the customer's money should not be deducted unjustifiably. The way the bank deducted Rs 295 from my account without any reason, similarly the money of every person who buys goods in instalments must be deducted. In today's era, everyone is buying even small things in instalments. Banks are stealing the commoners by charging this unnecessary fee. I approached the consumer forum to fight this battle and won finally," a jubilant Tamrakar told ETV Bharat.
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