Pune Consumer Court Orders Bank of Maharashtra to Compensate Account Holder Over Failing to Refund ATM Deduction

Pune :

In a significant relief to the bank account holder, the Pune District Consumer Court has ordered the Bank of Maharashtra to pay compensation to the complainant Mahesh Shejwal of Charholi over an ATM refund discrepancy.

As per the information, the complainant, Mahesh Shejwal, is an account holder of Bank of Maharashtra in the Vishrantwadi branch. In January 2017, during the financial restrictions, he tried to withdraw Rs. 10,000 from the ATM machine at Pune Municipal Corporation, Main Building. Surprisingly, he did not receive the money; however, Rs. 10,000 was deducted from his bank account.

As per the guidelines issued by the Reserve Bank of India, the bank is required to credit the deducted amount to the customer’s account within twelve working days. However, as this did not happen, the complainant filed a complaint with the bank. After following up from time to time, the bank replied to him that no excess cash or difference was found in the ATM.

After that, the plaintiff filed a formal complaint with the Pune Consumer Grievance Redressal Commission and demanded compensation. The Pune Consumer Grievance Redressal Commission investigated the incident and ordered the Bank of Maharashtra’s Vishrantwadi branch to pay Rs 33,500/- as compensation for a total of 335 days from 20th January 2017 to 20th December 2017 at the rate of Rs 100 per day, Rs 5000/- for mental distress, and Rs 1000/- for filing the complaint, totalling Rs 39,500/-.

The commission’s work was supervised by Chairman Anil B. Jawalekar, Member Sarita N. Patil, and Shubhangi J. Dunakhe.