The Delhi State Consumer Commission has directed Citibank to pay Rs 50,000 as compensation to a consumer for harassment and agony caused to him by including him in the defaulters list.
The Outgoing Chairman of the State Consumer Commission Mr J D Kapoor said that despite being no proof of any transaction, the bank continuously harassed the consumer and sent huge bills of hefty amounts.
Holding that putting name in defaulters list is unfair trade practice. It is defamatory as bank has no business to take its disputes to other banks and tell them that he is a defaulter and dont give him loan. The Court also issued instructions to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and other banks not to reject loan to the consumer on these grounds.
Matter pertains to a consumer Mr Bijay Kumar Dash, who was lured by the Citibank agents to get a credit card made. Though there was no transactions in his credit card, the bank billed him for Rs 27,000 as a club membership fee.
Thereafter, the bank kept sending hefty bills along with the accumulated interest and eventually Rs 1,30,000 was billed to him.
Mr Dash approached the bank and a settlement was reached.
Though the settlement for payment was done, the bank put the name of Mr Dash in the defaulters list whereby message was sent to each bank to black list him for the purpose of sanctioning loans.
Mr Dash said that the private banks are operating in a manner so that the blacklisted consumer could not approach the other banks for loan purposes and are left with no option but to approach them for loans at higher interest rates.
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