CHENNAI: The Registrar of the Court of Small Causes has issued notice to a bank after it allegedly refused to pay interest on the compensation amount given to a son of a road accident victim.
The compensation sum was deposited in Syndicate Bank by the court as the son was a minor in 2010 when the compensation was paid by the Metropolitan Transport Corporation following a court order in 2008. Syndicate Bank had refused to pay the interest for the last two years citing that the fixed deposit was not renewed after the three-year term.
The counsel for the road mishap victim’s kin, V S Suresh filed a complaint with the registrar pointing to a letter written by the registrar to all banks to automatically renew the deposits of compensation amounts for road accident victims.
“The amount was deposited in 2010 and the bank says after expiry of the three-year term, it was not renewed. But there is a standing instruction for automatic renewal from the court registrar, which the bank has refused to obey,” Suresh alleged in his complaint.
Suresh said that his client Hari’s father Rama Rao, of Orissa who was working in Chennai, was killed in 2002 after he was hit by an MTC bus on Old Mahabalipuram Road. A court directed MTC to pay compensation in 2008 and after two years the public transport company paid the sum. A part of the compensation awarded to Hari was deposited in Syndicate Bank as Hari was just 13 years old then.
Hari has now claimed the deposit from the bank. But the bank refused to pay interest on the amount for two years, as the deposit was not renewed after expiry of three years. On a complaint filed by advocate Suresh, the registrar issued a notice asking the bank to explain.