ABN Amro Bank to pay Rs 25 K to client

A consumer forum here has directed ABN Amro Bank to pay Rs 25,000 compensation to its client for "torturing" him by "deficiently" serving legal notice for the money already paid by him.
The New Delhi District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, presided by C K Chaturvedi, asked the bank to pay the money to Delhi resident Shish Pal, who was served a legal notice by the bank for the alleged deficiency on his part in repaying the loan which he had taken from it on credit card.
The forum noted that the bank had served the notice to Pal despite settlement amount duly paid by him within the stipulated period.

"Legal notice...Placed with complaint on record, clearly indicates malafide intention of Opposite Party (bank) to adopt unfair trade practices to tease the complainant and extract money by any means.
"Thus, it is a clear case of deficiency and breach of contract on the part of OP who deliberately avoided justice of law," the forum said, while holding the bank guilty for "deficiency in service".
"We direct OP to pay Rs 25,000 as compensation inclusive of litigation expenses to Pal as he has been unnecessarily dragged into litigation and OP penalized him for his honest approach," it said.

Pal had told the forum that he had taken a credit card from the bank and had also availed loan against this card and had paid the money in two instalments as per the terms of settlement, he said in his complaint.

Later, however, the bank sent a legal notice to Pal and aggrieved by this, he approached the forum, he said.
The forum passed the order after the bank did not appear before it.