Banks can't levy charges for transaction not done: Commission

A bank cannot impose transaction charges on a customer who never made any transaction; the Delhi Consumer Commission has held terming such a practice as "illegal and unjustified". "To debit transaction charges from the account of a person who has never made any transaction is unfair trade practice," Commission President Justice J D Kapoor said. The Commission allowed an appeal of a city resident Deepak Kumar Goyal, from whose account UTI Bank deducted Rs 860 for non-maintenance of average quarterly balance and transaction charges. Goyal had sought the reversal of a district forum's order of 2005 rejecting his plea for a refund of the Rs 860 debited from his account. "Admittedly, appellant did not make any transaction and 30 number of ATM transactions above the free limit were allowed and, therefore, a sum of Rs 308.56 was charged. We fail to understand as why this debit was made when there was no transaction," the Commission noted. It directed the bank to pay Rs 2,500 -- that included Rs 860 -- to Goyal as compensation for mental agony and harassment. "The debit of Rs 860 shown by the bank in Goyal's account is illegal and unjustified," the Commission observed. In his appeal before the Commission, Goyal said that he opened his account with the bank with Rs 10,400 in 2004 and an ATM card was also issued. To his surprise, he found that after some time there was shortage of Rs 860 in account balance. The bank, on its part, however maintained that it had debited the account in accordance with the rules and guidelines specified by the RBI.

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