The Pune District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum recently passed an order asking the Dhole Patil Road branch of Standard Chartered Bank to return Rs 22,000 to one of its customers and reinstate his credit limit back to Rs 2 lakh.

The disputed transaction through credit card, belonging to a project consultant Anil Supnekar, a resident of Market Yard, took place in 2004.

His credit card was misplaced in October 2004, which he came to know after he noticed at least seven disputed entries in his bank statement that he received in November.

Supnekar was then asked to fill a ‘disputes declaration form’. “Earlier, the bank officials said they would not charge interest unless the dispute is resolved. However, later the bank asked me to pay Rs 22,068 with interest on the disputed amount of Rs 14,889. I even got late night calls from the Bank’s recovery agents asking me to pay the amount. Unable to deal with the pressure and as a mark of protest, I paid Rs 22,068 on July 16, 2005 and approached the consumer court,” Supnekar said.

“Our argument was that it is the bank’s responsibility to verify the signature on the credit card slip with the specimen signature. Had the bank officials verified it, they would have easily known the discrepancy in the two signatures,” said advocate D G Sant, counsel for Supnekar.

According to Supnekar, signatures on none of the six charge slips matched with the specimen signature nor did they tally with each other.

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