Mumbai: Consumer Commission orders recovery proceedings against Syndicate bank

Mumbai: A district Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has ordered initiation of recovery proceedings by the Mumbai District Collector against Syndicate Bank for not adhering to its September 2018 order which asked the bank to pay a customer.

The 2018 order had found the bank guilty of deficiency in service as per the Consumer Protection Act and had directed it to pay Rs 60,000 with an interest at six percent per annum from January 2008 onwards till the date of that 2018 order. It had also ordered Rs 10,000 as compensation for mental torture and Rs 5,000 for litigation costs to the complainant Ramzan Ali. The order was supposed to be followed within 45 days of being passed. Ali had approached the commission the same year when the order was not followed. Ali claimed that the bank owes him Rs 1,13,000.

It was however only on 22 March this year that the Commission passed an order on his plea for initiating recovery proceedings against the bank.

As per Section 25(3) of the Consumer Protection Act, if any amount is due from a person as per an order of the Commission, the person entitled to the amount can approach the Commission and the Commission can issue a certificate of the said amount to the District Collector. The Collector can then recover the amount in the same manner as done in arrears of land revenue.

The Commission’s President Sneha Mhatre ordered her office to send the certificate to the Mumbai District Collector’s office for appropriate steps and for the latter to recover the amount pending to the complainant through recovery proceedings as followed in arrears of land revenue. It also stated that the costs incurred in the proceedings be added to the amount to be recovered from the bank and that amount be recovered from it as part of the same proceedings. It has also directed that the enquiry proceedings as well as compliance be filed before it by the Collector’s office.