NINA ARORA Vs. SR MANAGER CANARA BANK

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is an appeal against the order of 29th May, 1992 in O.P. No. 58 of 1992 on the file of the State Commission of Tamil Nadu. The State Commission had held that the complainant was not entitled to any relief except a direction to the O.P. bank to hand over to the complainant the original reports of the dishonoring of the 10 cheques by the various banks from which these were to be collected by the respondent bank.

(2.) THE brief facts are that the complainant is a financier having accounts with the Opposite Party bank. On 7th July, 1990 the appellant-complainant presented to the respondent-Opposite Party 10 cheques for collection which had been issued in her favour by her various customers on different banks. The total amount of these cheques was Rs. 46,504. The respondent bank credited the amount of these cheques to the complainant's account in anticipation of their realisation. But these cheques were subsequently returned to the appellant-complainant by the respondent bank on 10th July, 1990 as having been dishonoured. The respondent bank, instead of debiting the amounts of the dishonoured cheques to the account of the complainant, wrongly debited the same to another account. This mistake remained undetected for nearly one year and it is only on the 2nd of July 1991 that the respondent bank informed the appellant-complainant of its failure to debit the amount to her account in the first instance and debited the same to that account.

(3.) IT is relevant to note that according to the respondent bank, the dishonoured cheques were returned physically across the counter without keeping any record because of the long association between the respondent-complainant and the bank.