Dear Mohamed,
Following is the rule relating to cheque return charges as per the Master Circular on Customer Service:
"Banks have been advised to levy cheque return charges only in cases where the customer is at fault and is responsible for such returns. The illustrative, but not exhaustive, list of returns, where the customers are not at fault are indicated in the Annex VI. In cases where the cheques need to be re-presented without any recourse to the payee, such re-presentation should be made in the immediate next presentation clearing not later than 24 hours(excluding holidays) with due notification to the customers of such representation through SMS alert, email etc."
RBI rule can be verified by clicking on the following link:
https://rbi.org.in/scriptttts/BS_ViewMasCirculardetails.aspx?Id=8131&Mode=0
copy and paste the above in your browser if the above link is not working.
The illustrative list of cheque returns where the customers are not at fault includes the following also:
"Not payable till 1st proximo"
The list can be verified by scrolling down completely down in the RBI Master Circular and go to Annexure VI
The above reason says if a cheque is presented payable at a future date(proximo) and the cheque is to be returned for that reason, such return cannot be attributed to the Customer's fault.
Therefore, may be I am also not correct in saying that if Customer had given a post dated cheque for collection, he can be penalised.
From the aboveRBI Rule, it can be deducted that it is the responsibility of the collecting bank to verify each cheque before presentation to verify whether it is normally payable as per the apparent tenor including the date of cheque. In the event the collecting bank presents a proximo cheque which shall be returned by the paying banker, such return of cheque cannot be attributed to the Customer's fault and hence no charges for that particular cheque can be collected by the bank.
I cannot help the feeling that RBI could have been more clear in this regard by using correct wording instead of "proximo".