Tuesday, June 17, 2008

ICICI Bank directed to pay Rs 10,000 compensation to credit card holder

ICICI Bank Ltd was directed by a consumer forum to compensate Sunil Kumar Sinha a city resident for withdrawing money from his credit card account and issuing a medical policy without his consent.

Sinha in a complaint before the forum, alleged that ICICI Lombard General Insurance Ltd had issued medical policy in his and family members' names without any consent or authorization.

He said that when he raised objection on the withdrawal of Rs 9,000 from his account, the company refunded him just Rs 7,000 but held back Rs 2,000 as service charge.

"The bank argued that policy was issued to complainant on telephonic instructions. But it could not file any such record where daily telephonic messages are stored. The forum holds that it had issued medical policy without consent, authorization and knowledge of complainant," forum President A K Jain said.

The forum also instructed the bank to pay Rs 10,000 as compensation to Sunil Kumar Sinha, also Rs 3,000 as cost of litigation.

The panel, comprised S C Jain and M Siddiqui as members, has also directed the bank to credit a sum of Rs 5,204 in Sinha's account, noting that the amount was withdrawn without any authorization from him.

Sinha, also have a salary account with ICICI Bank, he further stated that the company had withdrawn Rs 5,204 from his account without any notice, causing him "great mental and physical harassment."

However the insurance company told the forum that it had issued the medical policy following a telephonic request from Sinha and denied any deficiency in service, maintained that the money was withdrawn in accordance with the terms.

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