After 3 Years In Legal Battle, Man Gets Rs 9,000 As Compensation From SBI For Wrongly Debiting Rs 51 From His Account

Saiyed Ishrathulla Hussaini who hails from Bangalore had filed a case against State Bank of India in the Consumer Forum three years ago for wrongful accounting and inadequate services. The District Urban Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, Bangalore has ordered SBI to issue a return of Rs 51 to the bank account of the consumer, i.e. reverse entry. Along with this, the court ordered the bank to compensate the man – Rs 5,000 for hassle and a sum of Rs 4,000 for the cost of litigation.

Syed IshrathullaHussaini, who resides on KHB Road, Bangalore, is an old SBI customer. On September 23, 2014, he issued a check to Twinkle Public School accounts for a sum of Rs 20,000, but the money was not received in the school account. After three days, the school teachers informed Husseini about not earning money. Hussaini, when he asked the bank on September 29 about the delay in the transaction, came to know that the concerned employee is on leave. After this, he sent an email to the bank about the delay in the payment, but he did not get any response. Subsequently, Husseini again sent an email to the bank on October 2, in response to which the bank said that on October 1, Rs 20,000 was transferred to the school account. In that mail, the bank did not give any reason for the delay, nor did it express any remorse for its lousy service.

Then again on May 25, 2015, Rs 51 was debited from Husaini’s SBI account. When Hussaini contacted the bank to state the reason, he was told that the bank sent his new cheque book by courier to his home address. The house was closed at that time, due to which the courier personnel had to return. Hussaini said that he had not opted for the chequebook to be sent home and he had received his chequebook after visiting the bank’s branch. So, there was no reason for debiting Rs 51 in the name of courier charge.

After both the incidents, on July 10, 2015, Hussaini went to the bank to collect Rs 40,000 from his account. At the bank was crowded, officials asked him to wait. However, when Husseini saw that the bank had four counters for customer service, but only two of them were working, he went questioned the officials but was mistreated. Following such behaviour, Hussein filed a case against the bank in Consumers Forum on November 23, 2015. He won the case after three years, and the forum has ordered the bank to give a sum of Rs 9,000 as compensation.

The Logical Indian believes that Husseini’s legal battle is an inspiration to all those people who are harassed by service providers. However big or small the issue may be, it is important that we fight for our right and voice our concerns.