Consumer Case on ICICI Bank for Unauthorized Debit Message
The complainant, holding an ICICI credit card, made a payment of Rs. 12,295 for a hotel booking at Lemon Tree Hotel in Amritsar. After the payment, he received an unauthorized debit message for Rs. 4,07,200. Despite lodging a complaint with the bank and submitting a Transaction Dispute Form, no resolution was provided.
The matter was reported to the cyber crime cell, but when the bank failed to address the issue, the complainant approached the Banking Ombudsman and later filed a complaint in the consumer forum seeking compensation, alleging cyber fraud. The bank contested the maintainability of the complaint, arguing that such cases required police investigation and were outside the jurisdiction of consumer forums.
The bench referred to the NCDRC judgment in Manisha Sohilkumar vs. HDFC Bank and the Supreme Court’s decision in City Union Bank vs. R. Chandramohan, both of which emphasized that banking frauds involving forgery or cheating require detailed police investigation and are not suitable for consumer forums due to the complex factual issues involved.
The bench concluded that the complaint, centered on fraud and forgery, required an appropriate investigation and could not be addressed by the consumer court. Therefore, the complaint was dismissed, with the complainant granted the option to approach the relevant court of law.
Source: – Live Law
By: – Rajat Ranjan
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