BENGALURU: The District Consumer Forum held ICICI bank guilty of deficiency in service for demanding payment for a credit card that did not belong to a complainant and withholding the clearance of his housing loan for non-payment of the credit card bill. It said that the bank was not entitled to recover the due amount on the card.
The forum was hearing a complaint filed by Mohammed Tanveer, a resident of Marathahalli, alleging fraud by the bank for demanding `92,240 towards the credit card, which he had never owned.
As per the complaint, Tanveer had taken a housing loan from the bank. To his shock, he started receiving messages and calls from the bank asking him to pay `92,240 towards a credit card. He got no response when he asked the bank for detailed statements.
Later, he was intimated that his housing loan account was attached to the credit card and an NOC will not be issued unless he cleared the outstanding amount. Tanveer alleged that his account details had been compromised and misused. Stating that he had not availed the credit card facility for the transaction of `92,240, Tanveer said the email and the phone number used for the credit card did not tally with his address.
He said he then sought an investigation of the matter stating fraudulent activity by someone, but the bank started unnecessarily harassing him by sending several SMSes and making phone calls.
The bank contested his claim and contended that the complaint was not maintainable. It alleged that the complainant’s claim for transaction that the card does not belong to him was false and baseless.
The burden is on the complainant to prove that the card does not belong to him, the bank said.
After hearing both sides, the forum observed, “On perusing the rival averments...it clearly shows that when the genuine dispute was raised in respect of issuing credit card and his transactions, the bank had failed to establish that the complainant had obtained a credit card by adopting due procedure. Further, the bank ought to have produced the documents of the complainant submitted in order to obtain the credit card and his bank loan account number.”
“When a housing loan is different from a credit card transaction, how can the bank attach the housing loan account to the credit card account without the complainant’s consent?” the forum observed stating that the bank was at fault.
The forum held that the bank was not entitled to recover the due amount of `92,240 from the complainant.
“The bank is at liberty to find the culprit by adopting due process of law. Certainly when the complainant had not availed the credit card in question, on demanding a disputed amount by the bank, the complainant had suffered mental agony to overcome the problems. When the complainant cleared the housing loan, it was the bank’s duty to issue no due certificates and it cannot attach it to the credit card transactions,” the forum said.
The forum held the bank responsible, and directed it to clear Tanveer’s account.