SOHAN LAL BANCE Vs. CITYBANK N A

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard counsel for the petitioner who has submitted before us that the compensation awarded is too inadequate inasmuch as the petitioner had to incur expenses for coming to India from London in order to sort out the deficiency in service on the part of the OPs and had to stay in Delhi as well as in Chandigarh for which, adequate compensa-tion is required to be paid.

(2.) The respondents were duly informed for today's date, but in spite of service by registered A.D., no appearance has been put in on behalf of the OPs. The facts are not in dispute. The petitioner is maintaining NRI Account with the OPs and on 28.4.1999, he had issued a cheque in favour of Mrs. Ravi Lal for a sum of Rs. 98,500 and at that time the petitioner had sufficient balance in his NRI account. On 8.5.1999, Mrs. Ravi Lal had presented the above cheque with her Bank for clearing, but the same was returned by the Batik on account of insufficient fund. Mrs. Ravi Lal contacted the petitioner and informed him about the dishonour of the cheque. The compLalnant contacted the OP Branch in London and after confirmation from Delhi Branch, the Bank admitted their mistake and requested that the cheque be presented again for encashment. Accord-ingly, Mrs. Ravi Lal again presented the cheque with the Bank. Once again the cheque was not honoured and was returned to Mrs. Ravi Lal. After about 2 years, the compLalnant came to India and was in-formed by Mrs. Ravi Lal that the cheque had not been encashed and she humiliated and insulted the petitioner.* Not only that the cheque was dishonoured, but OP had wrongly debited in the account of the peti-tioner the said sum of Rs. 98,500 along with other bank charges. On 2.6.2001, the OP reversed the entry of Rs. 98,500, but ex-penses amounting to Rs.1,699.60 ps were not adjusted. Alleging deficiency in service, the compLalnt was filed. The District Forum awarded compensation of Rs. 50,000. The cLalm for travel to India was rejected.

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