Salary account freeze without my notice

The local BM shall do nothing. You may speak or write to him 100 times if you want.

However the contention of the BM also does not make good sense that he has not created the lien..........................

Approach a lawyer handling consumer or such cases.

M/s HDFC Bank may vacate the lien on getting legal notice from your lawyer....................................

It may not vacate the lien on getting legal notice from your lawyer....................................

You must obtain:

--- certified copy of the SB/Salary A/c opening form you have signed with M/s HDFC Bank and show it to your lawyer....................................IT might contain a clause that M/s HDFC Bank can set off other dues in this a/c..........................( banker’s lie and right to set off). Without consent of the customer bank may not succeed for banker’s lie and right to set off.   However your lawyer may still contest that the CC is older than SB A/c.......................

---HR forms signed by you with new company. You might have given consent to transfer the salary in bank a/c............................Without written consent company can not deny to pay in currency notes/coins, and can not press to disburse salary in bank a/c.................................

However you solely can cancel any consent and any bank and can change from one bank to another.................

Probably you have been spending more thru CC than you could pay and therefore you have landed in such a situation.

Your future credits in M/s HDFC Bank SB a/c shall also be adjusted against M/s HDFC Bank CC dues......................

Your company might have been doing business thru M/s HDFC Bank as per its preference.............................

However it does not levy any obligation to obtain credits from your company thru M/s HDFC Bank.....................

You can cancel/close the SB a/c with M/s HDFC Bank and ask the employer to pay wages in cash.....................or by bank DD or in another bank of your choice....................e.g. SBI, Axis bank.......................and inform the payroll executive to amend the change in time.

If your locality and community, employees union etc  are united you may try by managing a crowd of well wishers and twist the BM to an angle that this lien is vacated (and if agreeable to you bank offers you a plan to pay in EMI’s......................)

You may note that if you enter into any kind of settlement then settlement is adverse/negative entry and it shall be featuring in CIBIL and others.................................

You are already listed in defaulters/bad customers and even if you pay in full it shall not repair the delinquency immediately....................

THE PAYMENT OF WAGES ACT, 1936

6. Wages to be paid in current coin or currency notes.- All wages shall be paid in current coin or currency notes or in both: 5*[Provided that the employer may, after obtaining the written authorisation of the employed person, pay him the wages either by cheque or by crediting the wages in his bank account.]

You may find many other threads on M/s HDFC Bank and others as relevant and useful.....................

https://www.lawyersclubindia.com/forum/Standard-chartered-and-shaha-finlease-95120.asp#.Usvvc9IW1MA

 https://www.lawyersclubindia.com/experts/Credit-card-payment-443961.asp#.UsvwjNIW1MA

https://www.lawyersclubindia.com/forum/Credit-card-robbery-fraud-in-china-94830.asp#.UsvwUtIW1MA

https://www.lawyersclubindia.com/experts/Harassment-by-recovery-agents--442841.asp#.UrhGa9IW1MA

https://www.lawyersclubindia.com/forum/Harrasment-by-icici-banks-recovery-agents-76271.asp#.UUc5U0pFZ_4

Thanks for the information.

KAMAL

I will have to look at the  account opening document Whether ,if there is any lien.I believe ,there should not be any lien.However,the version of the branch manager and the executive of the bank is that the holding on the account has been put by the credit card team and they have nothing much to do with that.However,as I mentioned ,in the time of having credit card,I have  never had any savings account with HDFC.So,the question of lien with the saving account seems little ambiguous  to me .I have already approached the bank for asking the copy of the saving account opening form.I have already given them one week time to settle this  issue ,otherwise ,i will have to send a legal notice along with a complaint filed both in RBI banking ombudsman and consumer court.

----“I have written to HDFC bank to convert the entire outstanding amount to a structured EMI,so that I can pay my bills,but there was no reply from the Bank.”

Provide the copy of this communication to your lawyer.

Have you been transacting with M/s HDFC Bank by email and getting bills by email and did the bank have your phone number too?

If yes has M/s HDFC Bank preferred to transact/communicate with you by email and phone?

If yes M/s HDFC Bank that collects email id’s and phone numbers should have supplied the notice of lien by email and contacted by phone too.

This may come handy as M/s HDFC Bank shall scream and cry that it has been sending notices by its credit officer (computer generated statement that does not require signature) and shall even produce copies.................

Hence you may demand certified copies and POD too.............................

----“HDFC bank has put a “freeze” on my account without any prior notice”

Bank is under obligation to supply notice.................................

You may not get desired relief from BO.........................however choice is yours....................

Although you may submit complaint to Adity Puri MD of M/s HDFC Bank

aditya.puri@hdfacbank.com

with a copy to RBI

In the thread already mentioned in previous post you can download the address of Dy. Governor, Governor of RBI.............

You are in for surprises from M/s HDFC Bank.................

You may find another thread as relevant;

https://www.lawyersclubindia.com/forum/Banker-s-lien-and-right-of-setoff-52947.asp#.UUIJeEpFZ_4

https://www.lawyersclubindia.com/forum/Extent-of-banker-s-lien-over-and-above-amount-due--90283.asp#.UlgPGNKAqWM

{(v) Lien

Banks have a right to exercise lien under section 171 of the Indian Contract Act against the dues from constituents/customers. However, the banks cannot exercise lien over the personal account of a customer on the ground that money was due to the bank in another account where he acts in a different capacity, if there is no agreement to that effect} 

Couple of points I need to clear here .The facts are as below:

1.I was working in Bangalore with a  Bangalore Based company “ABC” and my credit card was given to me at my Bangalore address.

2. I worked in that ““ABC” company, based out of Bangalore till May 2013 and till that time ,I was paying my credit card bills regularly. After that I was Unemployed from June to October and in November, I had joined this new company “XYZ” in Mumbai.

3.This new company “XYZ” in Mumbai has  been dealing with  HDFC bank and their salary accounts are opened in HDFC bank, so my corporate savings zero balance account was opened in Mumbai address and this account is just two months old. For the month of November, my new  company “XYZ” has given me salary by cheque, but for the month of December ,they have deposited my salary on the savings account opened with HDFC Bank.

4.Now ,the HDFC  bank has put a “Hold/Freeze”, on the savings account without any prior intimation to me.

5.Does HDFC  Bank has the right to put lien in my savings account? I have seen the bank account opening form, there is no where anything being mentioned about lien.

6.So my question here is which account the bank has put a lien. Is it on the credit card account? But to be precise, there was no savings bank account attached to the credit card with HDFC, when I was doing transaction with HDFC Bank and was working with “ABC” Company.

7. I used to get bills and calls from the Bank in regards to the credit card payment, during the period of unemployment.However,there was no legal notice or anything pertaining to Lien. At the month of September , I have written to the HDFC bank to convert my outstanding amount to a structured EMI so that I can start repaying me. But ,there was no written communication from Bank.

8.Coming to this savings account in Mumbai, there was no notice being served to me in regards to put this saving  account on hold or freeze or any lien.

Due to outstanding payments in CC M/s HDFC Bank has put a lien/hold on SB a/c....................

Whatever you may post now the bank has taken an action and later it may set off the dues (Including interest, finance charge, late payment fee etc...................... up to date of set off)

It is now up to you to act now or later......................

It shall be worth approaching your lawyer.......................................with copies of whatsoever docs you have an proceed under the advice of your lawyer.

Please do help me to file a case in consumer court in mumbai..Please do let me know the consumer court address in mumbai andheri/powai  and

please do provide me the format/draft to file the complaint

kamal

The details of the consumer court have to be searched by you on your own.

The consumer forum website and office staff of the forum can provide you the format.

From consumer forum you can find out the lawyers that handle consumer/banking/similar cases.

It shall be appropriate to proceed thru a lawyer specializing in such cases.

It shall be better to file thru a very able counsel specializing in consumer matters.

Banks are not empowered to make recovery from salary accounts directly without order from the court. Even court order will be subject to Section 60 of Civil Procedure Code which lays down that no amounts shall be recovered from debtor which would deprive him even his subsistence. Section 60 CPC gives list of many items that can't be recovered from debtors even by Courts when they recover on behalf of decree holder.

What bank has done in your case is ILLEGAL . ..you can report it to Ombudsman at Reserve Bank of India or file an Injunction petition in Civil court to prevent them from attaching your salaries without court order.

IN such matters banks take refuse in Banker's right to set off and lien and local BM give statements like  ………………….. HO has done it.

Under Irish Law a credit institution has the right to set-off a credit balance on one current account against a debit balance on another current account.1 Commenting on the case advanced by Counsel for the bank, Fitzgibbon J. made the following statement in  Bank of Ireland v Martin2

: “... he has boldly asserted that a banker who has monies of a customer in his hands may lawfully apply those monies in discharge of any liability of that customer to him on an account whatever. He has, I need hardly say failed to refer us to any decision, dictum or even opinion of a text-writer in support of his assertions. Of course there is authority for the proposition that where a customer has two or more current accounts, even in different branches of the same bank, the banker in the absence of any special contract, may apply a credit balance on one account to feed the debit balance upon another and that  if one account be overdrawn the banker is not bound to honour cheques drawn upon a second account which happens to be in credit, if that credit balance is less than the deficit upon the first. But this decision, if it be of sound law, applies only to current accounts and even as regards them is subject to any arrangement to the contrary with the customer, and we have not been referred to any case in which it has been decided or even suggested that a banker may of his own motion transfer a customer’s money, lodged on a deposit account, to that customer’s current account in order to discharge an overdraft thereon.”3 (emphasis added)

Generally Under Irish Law a credit institution has the right to set-off a credit balance on one current account against a debit balance on another current account. In doing so Fitzgibbon J. tentatively approved the comments of Swift J. in  Greenhalagh and Sons v Bank of Manchester4 wherein the Court of Appeal determined that a bank could merge accounts of the same customer of the same type only, i.e. all the customer’s deposit accounts. Distinct accounts carry with them the contractual expectation that, having been set up separately, they will remain separate.

Don't know why these common law rights (banker's right to set off) are not revisited by legislatures in Free India. 

Does it make any sense that bank being a mere business entity is bestowed with Arbitrary power to appropriate sums in savings accounts of their customers with loan accounts which can't be done by Courts even in Execution of decree due to constraints of section 60 of Civil Procedure Code?