Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, May 15: A customer who approached consumers court against a private bank that had lost a cheque he had lodged for collecltion towards loan repayment, has succeeded in getting a compensation of Rs 20,000 for suffering mental agony on account of negligence on bank's part.

The consumers court which imposed fine of Rs 20,000 on the bank manager after finding that the charge of defective service has been proved, also granted suit cost of Rs 2,000 to the customer.

Nagappa from Kalaghatagi had borrowed Rs 2.8 lac from Basavaraj from Navalgund village in Dharwad district. On June 7, 2017, he had issued cheque towards repayment of full loan amount in favour of Basavaraj. Basavaraj had deposited this cheque for encashment in the private bank where he had an account, on June 9. But the bank, which lost the cheque given by him, asked him on July 10 to get another cheque in place of the lost one.

Nagappa refused to issue another cheque. Basavaraj, who faced problem, served notice to the erring bank branch and its head office. The bank took the stand that there was no question of deficiency in inservice and that it cannot do anything for the lost cheque and that it will encash cheque if he obtains a new one. Basavaraj approached consumer court on November 3, 2017.

The bank had argued that the cheque in question had been sent to its Hubballi branch for encashment but the CTS machine refused to accept the cheque as it had moisture content. Therefore, the cheque was sent back by registered post on June 17 but it went missing. The bank said its efforts to trace the lost cheque failed. It argued that the person who issued the cheque does not lose anything if he issues a fresh cheque in place of the lost one.