Aryan Grover
The Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission (CDRC) in Gujarat’s Amreli district has declined the demand for compensation. Said demand was made by a victim of online fraud.
The demand was declined for the reason that it was the victim’s negligence that led to him getting duped in the first place.
The victim, Kurji Javia, is a retired teacher who received a call from the fraudster who presented themselves as a State Bank of India (SBI) manager, seeking Javia’s ATM card details, which were subsequently shared.
Later, a pensionary sum of Rs. 39,358 was credited to the victim’s bank account, a sum of Rs. 41,500 was debited at the same time. Javia raised an alarm and contacted the bank for assistance but could not get a prompt response.
He thus instituted a legal suit against the SBI for the amount lost as well as Rs. 30,000 for harassment, pleading in his complaint that his loss would have been prevented if the bank had been proactive in its response to his call.
The CDRC took into consideration the Reserve Bank of India’s circular which states that Banks must mandate their customers to register for SMS and email alerts, which are to be regularly sent out by the banks, warning them against scammers and urging them to not share their baking details, ATM pin details, credit card details, etc.
SBI, like other banks, had complied with the instructions laid down in the circular. However, the customer still failed to adhere to the basic precautionary norms, thereby falling prey to a fraudulent scheme, and thus, the bank cannot be held responsible for it.
This decision of the CDRC, however, stands in contradiction to what has been held in the past by the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) and the RBI. The NCDRC has held in the past that banks will be liable to compensate their customers in case of unauthorized transactions, and cannot rely on arbitrary terms and conditions to ‘wriggle out’ of its liability.
The RBI too states that in case of a third party breach (if someone other than the bank or customer makes a transaction), the customer shall be absolved of all liability if they notify the bank about the same within three working days.