ICICI delays return of title deeds, dragged to forum

In a unique tale of determination, a resident of Kukatpally took the ICICI Bank to the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission in Delhi, as they had delayed in returning his original documents which he had submitted for acquiring a loan in 2014.

The complainant had approached the District Consumer Forum after the bank located at Begumpet misplaced his documents with someone else’s loan papers and returned them after a 45-day wait. This wait had prevented him from getting a sum of `12 lakhs from another finance company as he couldn’t produce the valid documents.

The district forum then asked the bank to pay a sum of `5,000 to the complainant as compensation, but he challenged the decision in the higher court of the State Commission claiming his loss had not been assessed correctly.

The State Consumer Forum noted, “Being a valuable security, the bank was under obligation to keep the documents in custody and return the same on discharge of its debt by the loanee.” The Forum added that the fact that the complainant’s original documents were tagged with an another loan account was clearly indicative of deficiency on part of the bank.

They enhanced the compensation to `25,000 to be paid to the consumer with a nine per cent interest per annum from the date of order. The consumer still maintained that his losses amounted to `17 lakhs and approached the Apex Consumer Court for a better compensation but they concluded that the complainant wasn’t able to produce any “cogent evidence” to prove the loss. Thus, upholding the decision of State Consumer Forum they maintained the compensation amount of `25,000.