Banks are the custodians of money kept with them by the investing public, and given that it is a question of money, ensuring the safety of this money should be a very high concern for the bank. However, one has seen in the past that disputes between banks / other financial institutions and individuals happen all the time, and these can take a fair amount of time to settle. This also seems like an unequal fight to some degree, since the bank or financial institution is a large organization that can command lawyers and all, while in a number of cases, the customer who is fighting the bank would not command the financial energy to fight these challenges. But what do you do ? In the current case, the customer saw that the account was missing money which he did not withdraw, while the bank told him that it was not responsible. He finally decided to fight the case in the consumer forum, after appealing to the bank and its consumer redressal forum did not work; in fact, he was blamed for the problem and the bank offered no help.
So he went to the consumer forum, arguing for himself. It took time but the bank could not provide any proof to back its contention that he had withdrawn the money and was trying to fleece the bank; basically arguing that he was trying to commit fraud. The one problem in India – whether in the consumer forum or in the court system is the amount of time it takes to get justice; in this case, the case started in 2011, but it shows that consumer forums sort of even the score a bit; a poor tea vendor was able to take on the mightiest bank in the country and win the case with the bank being ordered to pay him back the money along with some compensation (link to article):
Never underestimate the power of a common man – let this tea vendor from Bhopal show you why.
Rajesh Sakre would have you believe he is a regular guy, except he has just fought and won a case against one of India’s largest banks.
Mr Sakre who has only studied till Class five, challenged the government-run State Bank of India back in 2011, when he realized that a sum of Rs. 9,200 was missing from his bank account.
According to a report in Bhopal Samachar, Mr Sakre had Rs. 20,000 in his account, from which he withdrew a sum of Rs. 10,800. However, on his next ATM visit he realized his account had been wiped clean.
Mr Sakre went to one of the Bank’s branches to complain but the officers shrugged, and blamed him for the mess. He then made an appeal to the bank’s Mumbai headquarters, but it didn’t work. As a last resort, he filed a case in the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum.