SHASHI KALA GUPTA Vs. HDFC BANK LIMITED

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is an appeal against order of District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum -II, U.T., Chandigarh (for short hereinafter to be referred as District Forum) dated 2.4.2009 passed in Complaint Case No. 671 of 2008, Smt. Shashi Kala Gupta Jain v. HDFC Bank Limited and Another.

(2.) IN short, the case of the complainant is that she availed a loan of Rs. 6,25,000 from the OP for the purchase of a used car, which was to be repaid in 48 monthly equated instalments of Rs. 17,394 starting from 2.7.2006 and the last instalment was to be paid on 2.6.2010. The complainant instead of paying higher rate of interest opted for liquidation of the loan and therefore, she approached OPs on 9.1.2007 with a request to close her account as she was willing to repay the outstanding amount till that date. The OPs demanded a total of Rs. 5,79,424.39 for closing the said account out of which Rs. 5,55,358.92 were towards outstanding principal amount and the balance of Rs. 22,214.36 were towards prepayment charges @ 4% on the outstanding amount and a sum of Rs. 1,851.11Ps were towards the interest thereupon. According to the complainant, she paid the said amount under protest because she had never agreed to any prepayment charges. Since, requests of the complainant to refund the prepayment charges had not been acceded to by the OPs, this complaint had been filed.

(3.) THE case of OPs, on the other hand, is that there is an agreement for payment of prepayment charges/foreclosure charges and the customer is bound to pay the same in case of prepayment of the loan. It is the case of the OPs that there is a specific clause in the agreement that the loanee would be liable to pay the prepayment charges as per the agreement and since, these charges had been levied as per the agreement, there was no deficiency in service on the part of OPs.