BANK OF BARODA Vs. SAVINDER KAUR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The complainant/respondent along with her husband late Shri Ratan Singh held a joint account with the Civil Lines, Pakhowal Road, Ludhiana Branch of the petitioner bank, she being the second account holder. Three withdrawals/deductions for a total sum of Rs.1,22,000/- were made by the bank from the aforesaid account. Alleging the said withdrawals to be unauthorized and unlawful, she approached the concerned District Forum by way of a complaint, seeking payment of the aforesaid amount along with interest and compensation.

(2.) The complaint was resisted by the petitioner bank. It was stated in the reply that late Shri Ratan Singh had availed ODP limit to the extent of Rs.3,00,000/- from the bank, against mortgage of an immovable property owned by him, by depositing the title deed of the said property with the bank. An ODP account was then opened by Ratan Singh with the bank which was operated by the deceased as well as his wife. However, the borrower failed to regularize the said ODP account which came to be declared as a Non Performing Asset (NPA) on 31-12-2007. Proceedings under Section 27 of the SARFAESI Act were then initiated by the bank wherein the complainant and other legal heirs of the borrower were directed to pay an amount of Rs.3,46,867/- along with interest on that amount. The said payment having not been made, the bank served a notice under Section 13(4) of the SARFAESI Act and took symbolic possession of the mortgaged property on 27-11-2008. Thereafter, the property was sold by the bank to one Smt. Manju Bains for Rs.1,64,000/-, by inviting tenders. The action taken by the bank was challenged by the complainant before the Debt Recovery Tribunal by filing a petition under Section 17 of the SARFAESI Act, which came to be dismissed by the said tribunal. It was further stated in the reply that since the ODP account turned NPA on 31-12-2007 the interest could not be applied earlier and the unapplied interest was debited by the system of the bank on 03-03-2011 for the period from 01-03-2008 to 02-03-2008. A sum of Rs.111/- was debited towards statement charges on 31-03-2011 and Rs.19,000/- were debited towards interest amount which were reversed on 20-03-2009. Thus, in nutshell the case of the bank is that the debit entries made in the account of the complainant represented the unapplied interest which could not be applied at the time when the account had turned into NPA but was applied after the sale proceedings of the mortgaged property were received by the bank and credited in the said account.

(3.) Vide its order dated 25-02-2014 the concerned District Forum dismissed the complaint holding that no deficiency in the service or unfair trade practice on the part of the bank could be proved.