Mr. Justice S.K. Dubey, President—The Central Bank of India (for short the ‘Bank’) has filed this appeal against the order dated 27.2.1997 passed in Case No. 726/91 by the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, Indore (for short the ‘District Forum’).

2. The facts giving rise to this appeal are thus : the respondent, the complainant before the District Forum had opened a Savings Bank Account in the Indore Branch of the Bank and had a balance amount of Rs. 14,030.30 paise in his account as on 4.2.1991 as borne out from the pass-book. On 4.2.1991, when he went to the Bank for withdrawal of the amount from his account he was informed by the Bank officials that a duplicate pass-book with another account number had been issued on an application purporting to have been signed by him and from that account a sum of Rs. 13,000/- had been withdrawn, leaving a credit balance of Rs. 1,030.30 paise only. The respondent averred that he had never submitted any application for issuing a duplicate pass-book nor he had withdrawn any amount as stated by the Bank officials. It was further averred that when the Bank officials realised that they had been cheated by someone who impersonating as