NEW DELHI: Blaming the bank officials for not adhering to norms, the Supreme Court has ordered UCO Bank to pay Rs 50 lakh to a publishing firm for negligently clearing two cheques bearing forged signatures.
A bench of Justices Adarsh K Goel and Uday U Lalit observed that the public sector bank cannot shred off its liability in view of a departmental inquiry and a report by a handwriting expert, which pointed out that the fraud took place because of bank officials’ negligence.
“The bank cannot be entirely free of blemish,” the court said while holding that the delinquent bank officials did not follow the requisite norms and lacked due diligence.
However, the court accepted the bank’s argument that safe custody of the cheque was the responsibility of the firm, The Tax Publishers, which suffered a loss of Rs 31 lakh when one of its employees reportedly stole two cheques and withdrew the money in March 2009 and denied the claim of Rs 1.5 crore sought by the firm.
“Having regard to the entirety of the matter, we are of the view that the claim of the respondent (publisher) ought to be satisfied by paying a total amount of Rs 50 lakh by the petitioners (Bank) to the credit account of the respondent within one month from today,” the bench ruled.