Bank, NBFC hound Chennai man over settled credit card dues; told to pay Rs 1.05 lakh fine

CHENNAI: The Chennai North District Consumer Redressal Commission directed a private bank and a non-banking financial company (NBFC) to pay Rs 1.05 lakh compensation and close the due of a customer who was scammed by them.

M Ganesh Nagarajan, a Madipakkam resident and complainant, availed a credit card facility with the Standard Chartered bank in Chennai, first opposite party.

In April 2006, there was a due for Rs 44,780 and the company issued an offer for settling it at Rs 34,000. So, the bank and Ganesh had recorded the offer of settlement for Rs 34,000 and agreed against the total outstanding of Rs 44,780.

The complainant paid the due to the bank in several installments as cash and cheque in 2006. The second and third cheques were handed over on the same day itself. Though the bank had presented them belatedly, the cheques were cleared, as assured by the complainant.

The complainant had made the full payment, after which the account should have been closed. But Ganesh said that the bank had assigned the right to Shaha Finlesase, a NBFC, to recover the imaginary amount due, by claiming that there was a due. The NBFC had made several communications through mail and phone call, by stating that there was a balance and had threatened Ganesh to pay the same or to suffer the consequences. Ganesh tried communicating with both parties but they failed to listen to his plea.

In 2023 July, the NBFC claimed that there were dues for the past 17 years, though the complainant had closed the account. They claimed that Rs 58,859.62 was the current outstanding, and called upon the complaint to clear it in the same month. However, the opposite parties had given a report that Rs 80,90,644 to be the current outstanding to CIBIL, which reflected in the complainant’s CIBIL score, due to which the complainant could not avail any benefits from it.

Ganesh issued a legal notice for which the bank responded but the NBFC failed to do so. The bank issued a reply seeking the details of payment, for which Ganesh had issued a rejoinder along with all the details.

When the case was brought to the consumer commission, headed by president D Gopinath, and members Kavitha Kannan and V Ramamurthy, they found that both the bank and the NBFC were deficient in providing basic service. Both parties were directed to close the complainant’s account, issue NOC and update the CIBIL report.

They were also directed to pay jointly or severally Rs 1 lakh towards compensation for deficiency in banking service, mental agony, pain and sufferings and Rs 5,000 towards litigation cost within two months from the date of receipt of this order.