(1.) The complainants have filed the complaint under Sec.12 read with Sec.17 (1) (a) (i) of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act, against the Manager of the State Bank of Patiala, and Shri Swarn Singh, Area Manager of WIMCO Ltd. , Chandigarh. The complainants have claimed various reliefs in para 12 of the complaint.
(2.) In short, the complainants' case is that WIMCO Ltd. sponsored a scheme known as 'wimco-Nabard Project' for enlarging Poplar Planting activities to cater the great demand of wood in the country, and all the nationalised banks, including State Bank of Patiala (hereinafter referred to as 'the Bank') adopted the scheme (Annexure 'a') as detailed in para 5 of the complaint, to provide credit assistance to the farmers underan Agro Forestry Project and formulated the credit norms to provide credits to the farmers. The complainants applied for a loan under the said project and were sanctioned a sum of Rs.4,93,000/- by the Bank. The scheme (Annexure 'a') with regard to the credit norms inter alia lays down as follows : - "security Norms (i) Hypothecation of the growing trees. (ii) Regular mortgage of land or creation of charge on land preferably on which poplar trees are grown. (iii) The economics of the project is given in Annexure-IV. It would be observed that the borrower will have sufficient surplus left after repaying the Bank's dues. The project is, therefore, economically viable. "
(3.) The complainants accordingly offered the securities of trees and land for creation of charge thereon under the provisions of Punjab Agricultural Credit Operations and Miscellaneous Provisions (Banks) Act, 1978. But the Bank refused to disburse the duly sanctioned loan on the ground that the creation of charge on the land would not suffice and instead a regular mortgage of land be created. The complainants in this complaint have sought a direction to the Bank to disburse the sanctioned loan amount by creation of the charge over the land in question as a collateral security and to award them Rs.2 lakhs as compensation for causing delay in disbursing the loan.