CITY HEART HOTELS PVT LTD Vs. ICICI BANK

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a complaint under Sec. 12 of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 filed by City Heart Hotel Private Limited against ICICI Bank, SCO No. 180-181, Sector 9, Chandigarh.

(2.) Briefly the averments made in the complaint are that the Complainant is in the business of hotels and one of its hotel i.e. City Heart Premium is the customer of the OP, which is a banking institution. Hotel City Heart Premium is having an account with the OP. The complaint has been filed by one of the Directors of the Complainant company who has been duly authorised vide Resolution dated 20.10.2007 to file the complaint. It has been stated that the aforesaid hotel of the Complainant has the facility of bill payment by the customers through credit cards. For this purpose, the OP has also provided a machine to the Complainant's hotel and has issued Merchant I.D. No. 11341010, Terminal l.D. No. 13035882. All the amounts received by the Complainant through the credit cards are accounted for and are credited in the current account No. 001305006249 in favour of the Complainant. For this service to the Complainant, OP is charging 1.5% commission on the amount received. It is the case of the Complainant that it charged the following bill amounts totalling Rs. 12,62,800 from its customers from abroad through their credit cards: <FRM>JUDGEMENT_509_CPJ2_2008_1.html</FRM>

(3.) The above payments were withheld by the OP on 12.8.2007. The OP informed the Complainant that this has been done because it was suspicious about the said amounts at their end and also told that certain people in U.K. are doing fraudulent transactions with different people at different places and therefore, these payments had been withheld till further inquiry. On 3.9.2007, the Complainant gave a written complaint to S.S.P., Chandigarh regarding receiving the said payments along with other payments with a prayer to investigate the matter but no action had been taken by the police till the filing of the complaint. It is further the case of the Complainant that the OP also withheld the following payments amounting to Rs. 8,48,681 without giving any notice or intimation: <FRM>JUDGEMENT_509_CPJ2_2008_2.html</FRM>