IMPORTANT POINT
Bank held liable for embezzlement of funds of its customers by bank officials.

ORDER

Deepa Sharma, Presiding Member.—This revision petition under section 21 (b) of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 ( for short, “the Act”) has been filed by the petitioner against the order dated 07.12.2017 of the Uttarakhand State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, Dehradun (for short, “the State Commission”) in First Appeal no. 268 of 2014 of the petitioner wherein the order of the District Consumer Disputes Forum, Haridwar (for short, “the District Forum”) dated 14.10.2014 in complaint no. 140 of 2014 was upheld.

2. The brief facts as stated by the complainant in his complaint are that on 17.10.2012, he had deposited a sum of Rs.5.00 lakh in his account against a duly executed receipt by the petitioner. He wanted to withdraw Rs.5000/- from this account on 25.10.2012 but he was informed that there is no sufficient balance in his account and was told that there was no entry made in his account regarding deposit of Rs.5.00 lacs. The complainant contended that this amounts to deficiency in service that despite deposit of money by him, money was not credited in his account and filed the complaint.

3. The petitioner contested the complaint and filed its written version. The plea taken by them was that deposit receipt was a fake and fabricated document. It was alleged that they had learnt that a bank official, namely, Sh. Ravinder Kumar committed forgery in the end of year 2012 and had issued a fake receipt under his signature and FIR had already been lodged against him with P.S. Kotwali, Laksar. It is submitted that there was no deficiency in service on their part and complaint was liable to be dismissed.

4. The parties led their evidence before the District Forum. After hearing the parties, the District Forum held as under:

“There is a receipt of the respondent bank of Date 17.10.2012 by which the complainant had deposited Rs.5,00,000/- in the respondent bank. In this regard it is the statement of the respondent bank that the receipt of the complainant is fake and forged by conspiracy. In this regard it is also the statement of the respondent bank that his employee Ravindra making criminal relation with some consumers and outside people and making conspiracy prepared the fake receipts, the information of which has been given to the local police by the bank. In this way the respondent bank is considering that his employee had prepared the fake and conspired record by conspiracy. If the forgery is done by the bank employee then for that the complainant cannot be punished. The receipt present on the record is the indicative of this matter that the complainant had deposited Rs.5,00,000/- in the respondent bank. If its forgery is done by the employee of the bank then bank is responsible for that, the complainant cannot be punished for that. Thus, the complainant is entitled to get the amount of Rs.5,00,000/- and simultaneously the complainant is also appears to be entitled to get interest at the rate of 6% per annum on the deposit amount of Rs.5,00,000/- from the date of deposit date 17.10.2012 till the date of last payment to the complainant and accordingly this complaint of the complainant is entitled to be allowed.”

5. This order was impugned by the petitioner by way of an appeal. The appeal was dismissed vide the impugned order and the plea of the petitioner that there was no deficiency in service on their part, since it was their employee who had committed fraud and other criminal offence and embezzled the amount, was rejected. The State Commission has held as under:

“6. The bank has taken the stand that their employee has forged the receipt regarding deposit of the amount by the complainant and that their employee has committed fraud and has entered into illegal relations with certain customers of the bank and has embezzled the amount. If an employee of the bank has embezzled the amount of the customer, the bank being the employer, is also vicariously liable for the wrong committed by its employee. Since the bank i