State Consumer Commission ordered SBI to pay Rs.80,000 to costumer for not receiving sms while withdrawing money

The state consumer commission has ordered the State Bank of India (SBI) to pay Rs 80,188 to its customer as the said amount was debited from his account after cloning his ATM card.

Badar Singh (Customer) did not receive any SMS regarding any such transaction from the bank on his registered mobile number. The money was withdrawn from different ATMs of HDFC Bank. The district commission had ordered both the banks to repay the amount in equal proportion, but the state commission, while modifying this, ordered that only “SBI would have to pay the entire amount as HDFC was not at fault”.

Badar Singh has a savings account with SBI. In February 2018, on updating his passbook, he was shocked to find that an amount of Rs 80,188 was withdrawn from his account through multiple transactions from HDFC ATMs.

After this, he complained of fraudulent withdrawal from his account. The bank official, after examining the records and the ATM card, said that the card was cloned, after which Singh lodged an FIR at Patel Nagar police station in Dehradun.

He also raised the issue of how Rs 80,188 was withdrawn from his account in a single day when as per the guidelines issued by the Reserve Bank of India, an amount not exceeding Rs 40,000 could be withdrawn through ATMs in a day.

The district commission said that “these acts reflect shortcomings in the banking process of HDFC as well as SBI”. The SBI counsel told the state commission that the bank has paid its share of the decretal amount to the customer. After looking into the case, the state commission said, “In the given facts and circumstances of the case, there is a total deficiency in service on the part of SBI.”

It further said, “…SBI is directed to pay the entire decretal amount awarded by the district commission after adjustment of the amount already paid.”