CHENNAI: A finance company, which misplaced an original vehicle registration book of a client taken as security for a loan advanced to a client, was pulled up by a consumer forum that directed the firm to return the book and pay compensation to the client for the trouble caused.
Based on observations made, Chennai District (South) Consumer Forum directed the finance company to pay a sum of `15,000 with interest at nine per cent as compensation plus `5,000 for costs to the complainant.
The complainant, K Sivakumar, a resident of West Mambalam, had availed a vehicle loan from Shriram Finances. He repaid the amount in full by December 2012, and received the necessary ‘no dues’ certificate by the company. However, the RC book that he had given the finance company as security was not returned. In his petition, the complainant said he had made repeated requests to no avail.
In its defence, the company claimed that Sivakumar had delayed repaying the loan and that three of the cheques sent to them were returned due to insufficient funds. Hence to recover the amount, they even initiated arbitration proceedings.
However, the company did accept that the customer had eventually settled the accounts fully, and admitted that they were unable to return the book because they had allegedly misplaced it while they were shifting their office. The company claimed that they had offered to obtain a duplicate RC book but allegedly failed to receive cooperation from the complainant, thereby denying any deficiencies on their part.
But refusing to accept this, Chennai District (South) Consumer Forum, presided by B Ramalingam, observed that there was deficiency on the part of the company. “The RC book which was obtained as security should have been properly maintained in safe custody… mismanagement of the book amounts to negligence and carelessness in maintaining the secured documents,” the forum said.
It added that since vehicle loan particulars are entered in the original RC book itself through the concerned RTO office, collecting the original RC book as security for the loan was unnecessary.