Compensate for non-processing of cheque: Telecom firm told

Holding that writing of a date in national calendar format in any instrument is valid, the Thane District Consumer Redressal Forum has asked Vodafone to compensate a customer for not processing his bill payment.

The calendar format, sometimes referred to us ‘shaka calendar’, was adopted in 1957.

In their order on Wednesday, f or um president Sneha S Mhatre and members Madhuri S Vishwarupe and ND Kadam ordered Vodafone to pay a compensation of Rs7,000 to the customer, Shripad Bambhorikar, toward mental harassment and legal charges. Bambhorikar had deposited a cheque written in the national calendar format against the bill, which did not get processed by the company.

Bambhorikar had alleged Vodafone had not sent the cheque for clearance, stating the reason that the date format was not valid. He informed the service provider about a circular issued by RBI on July 1,2009 , directing banks to accept the cheques written in National date format.

The forum concluded that the service provider was at fault and there was deficiency in its services in not sending the cheque with date in National Calender format on it for clearance.

A Vodafone India spokesperson said it did present the cheque with its bank, which in turn returned it on technical grounds.

“An earlier plea made to the court by Vodafone to make the bank party to the case was not accepted. We will appeal against the order along with an application for the concerned bank to be made a party to the case,” he said in a statement.

The forum has also asked Vodafone t o restore Bambhorikar’s connection by March, or else pay a compensation of Rs 1,000 per month.

The TRAI had on March 30,2014, directed the service provider to accept the cheque after which the service provider sent the cheque for clearance and it was cleared on April 7,2014.

The next payment which was made vide cheque with the date in the national calender format was returned citing invalid date and the service provider disconnected the mobile services.