SUSHANT MINERALS PVT LTD Vs. INDUSIND BANK LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This original consumer complaint has been filed by M/s Sushant Minerals Pvt. Ltd. through its Financial Coordinator Sri Susanta Kumar Mall, who has been duly authorized by the Board of Directors of the Co. by a resolution dated 26.11.2011. Alleging deficiency in service on the part of the respondent/opposite party Bank, the complainant has made the following prayers in its complaint:-

(2.) The complainant is a company incorporated under the provisions of the Companies Act, 1956 and is engaged in the business of export of iron ore fines. The OP is a private Bank having its branch office at Keonjhar (Odisha) where the office of the complainant company is also located. As per the allegations, the OP Bank has been providing services such as operation of bank account, credit facility, facility of inward and outward foreign exchange remittance, hedging of underlying foreign exchange exposures for securing risk from foreign exchange rate fluctuation which is commonly known as forward contract facility. The facility of hedging of underlying foreign exchange exposures is regulated through provisions of Foreign Exchange Management (Foreign Exchange Derivative Contracts) Regulations, 2000.

(3.) The complainant which was maintaining a current account bearing No.0191-K73930-060 in the OP Bank accepted the offer of the OP Bank to avail the facility of forward contract and for providing this facility, the OP Bank also offered credit limit of Rs.15 crores under the "Plain Vanilla Forward Contract" vide OP's letter dated 23.6.2010. As a part of the contract, the complainant company furnished a fixed deposit of Rs.75 lakhs to the OP Bank on 28.9.2010. It is submitted by the complainant that during the period of acceptance of the facility of the said forward contract, the OP Bank indulged in crediting or deducting various sums in the account of the complainant on different dates without issuing advice after 28.9.2010 even though the complainant had never applied for any forward contact nor had submitted any documentary evidence towards underlying foreign exchange exposure. Thus the OP Bank violated the guidelines issued by the Reserve Bank of India on forward contacts provided in various circulars which are consolidated in Master Circular No.12/2011-12 dated 1.7.2011. Giving details of such violations in the complaint, the complainant has alleged that the conduct of the OP Bank made it evident that the Bank had indulged in blatant fraud, deceit and manipulation and the same is against all market practices and norms on account of which the complainant has been unnecessarily driven into expensive and lengthy litigation and thus liable to be compensated for the same. In the circumstances, alleging deficiency in service on the part of the OP Bank, the complainant has filed the present complaint with the prayers reproduced above. The details of the amount claimed by the complainant in its prayer have been provided in para 25 and 26 of the complaint.