SC slams banks for petty litigation

Resenting a Gurgaon-based Gramin Bank fighting an eight-year-old legal battle with a woman agriculturist over insurance payment of Rs 15,000 for her dead buffalo,the Supreme Court on Tuesday asked banks to desist from bringing petty litigation before it. “At times,some give and take attitude should be adopted or both will sink. Unless,serious questions of law of general importance arise for consideration or a question which affects large number of persons or the stakes are very high,courts jurisdiction cannot be invoked for resolution of small and trivial matters.

“We are really disturbed by the manner in which those types of matters are being brought to courts even at the level of Supreme Court and this case falls in that category,” the apex court said.

A bench of justices K S Radhakrishnan and Dipak Misra passed the judgement while dismissing the appeal of Gurgaon Gramin Bank which was refusing to concede the customer Khazani’s plea for payment of Rs 15,000 insurance for her dead buffalo which was insured with the New India Assurance Company Ltd. “Let God save the Gramins,” the bench observed while dismissing the bank’s appeal.

The woman had availed a loan through the bank for purchase of the buffalo and got it insured with the insurance company through the former,which in the event of its death was expected to facilitate the compensation. But both the bank and the insurer refused to compensate her upon which she moved the district consumer forum in 2004 which ruled in her favour.