NIKHIL PHUTANE Vs. HDFC BANK LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present Revision Petition has been filed against the order dated 30.09.2010 of the Maharashtra State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, Mumbai (in short 'the State Commission') in First Appeal No. A/10/483.

(2.) Petitioner/Complainant is an account holder of HDFC Bank with Customer ID No.24901291 with Respondent No.2, Santacruz Branch. The case of the Complainant was that he was working as an officer with Qatar National Bank at Qatar. He deposited Rs.4,60,000/- which was reflected in his account on 23.10.2008. Due to professional commitment, he could not verify the account in December, though he checked it on the net. He, however, to his surprise found that the entire balance of Rs.4,60,000/- was transferred from his account to another account, as per the Bank Statement for the month of November, 2008. He filed a Criminal Complaint with the Santacruz Police Station on 16.01.2009. Though the culprit was caught by the Police, only an amount of Rs.70,500/- could be recovered. Alleging negligence on the part of the Opposite Parties and seeking recovery of the balance amount of Rs.3,89,500/-, a Consumer Complaint was filed with the following prayer:

(3.) The case was contested by the Opposite Parties. They denied that any of their employees was involved in any fraudulent act. The funds were transferred as per the instructions received from the Complainant through Net Banking. Since the Complainant did not respond to the verification e-mails and messages about the transfer request received by the Bank, the transfer was affected. The Opposite Parties further stated that the Complainant was also informed of the transfer of funds, after completion of the transaction. Only a Complainant could know about Net Banking Password 'IPIN' and nobody else could operate the account. They also took the plea that the alleged fraudulent transaction was reported to the Bank only on 31.12.2008, i.e., 47 days after the transaction date.