STATE BANK OF BIKANER AND JAIPUR THROUGH ASST. MANAGER, 28 Vs. PRAKASH DEVI & ANR. W/O LATE SHRI JAGAN NATH KALRA, R/O 24, 3RD FLOOR, PURANI ABADI, SRI GANGANAGAR RAJASTHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The complainant/respondent was getting a family pension from the Government after the death of her husband who was a Government employee. The pension was being granted in terms of a PPO issued by the Govt. of Rajasthan. The task of crediting the pension to the account of the complainant was entrusted by the Government to the petitioner Bank. The complainant duly opened a pension account with the petitioner Bank and was paid pension till April 2004. Thereafter the pension was not credited to her account on the ground that the Pension Payment Order (PPO) had been misplaced in the record of the petitioner Bank. Pursuant to an audit report, the amount of Rs. 68,680.00 which had been paid as pension to her for the period from Sept. 1998 to April 2004 was also deducted from her salary. Being aggrieved, the complainant approached the concerned District Forum by way of a consumer complaint seeking arrears of pension with interest as well as payment of Rs. 68,680.00 which had bene deducted from her salary along with interest etc.

(2.) The petitioner Bank resisted the complaint primarily on the ground that since PPO was not available in the pension record of the complainant, a letter was sent by them on 15.12.2007 to the Treasury Officer for issuing a duplicate PPO. It was during the pendency of the said request before the Treasury Officer that an audit inspection was carried out for the year 2004-2005, which found the payment of pension to be irregular, the pension paid for the period from Sept. 1998 to April 2004 was recovered. The petitioner Bank also took two preliminary objections, the first being that the complainant was not a consumer and secondly, the complaint was barred by limitation.

(3.) The District Forum vide its order dated 10.4.2015 directed the petitioner Bank to deposit the deduced amount in the pension account of the complainant along with interest @ 9% p.a. from the date of deduction. It was further directed to deposit the pension in her account from the date on which it was stopped along with interest @ 9% p.a. The petitioner was also directed to pay Rs. 10,000.00 as compensation and Rs. 10,000.00 as the cost of litigation to the complainant.