IMPORTANT POINT
Locker hiring facility – The very purpose for which the customer avails of the Locker hiring facility is so that they may rest assured that their assets are being properly taken care of.

ORDER

The present Appeals have been filed against the Orders dated 31.01.2020 passed by the State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission Jharkhand, Ranchi (hereinafter to be referred to as “State Commission”), whereby the Complaints filed by the Complainants were partly allowed and State Bank of India (hereinafter referred to as Opposite Party Bank) was directed to pay lump sum compensation of 30,00,000/- within one month, failing which it would carry interest @6% p.a..

2. Since the facts and question of law involved in these First Appeals are similar, these Appeals are being disposed off by this common Order. However, for the sake of convenience, FA No. 382 of 2020 is treated as the lead case and the facts enumerated hereinafter are taken from Complaint No. 05 of 2018.

3. Brief facts of the case as narrated in the Complaint are that the Complainants had Saving Bank Account and several High Value Fixed Deposit Accounts for nearly last four decades with State Bank of India, Bokaro Steel City (hereinafter referred to as the ‘OP Bank’). They were also allotted Safe Deposit Locker No. 1/46 by the OP Bank. During the intervening night of 25th and 26th December 2017 a theft took place in the OP Bank as a result of which various items including jewellery and postal deposit instruments which were kept in the Safe Deposit Locker by the Complainants, were taken away by the miscreants/thieves. In the evening of 26.12.2017, they came to learn from the news media that on or about 25th December 2017 (night) some Safe Deposit Lockers had been broken open by thieves and valuables had been stolen away. It is averred that no intimation was given to them by the OP Bank. On the following day i.e. on 27.12.2017, they rushed to the OP Bank and found three lists pasted on the wall of the main entrance and the complainants noted that among others, that their Safe Deposit Locker No. 1/46 has been broken open and burgled. The Complainants met the Officer of the OP Bank, who confirmed about the incident and asked them to furnish a list of their valuables. According to the Complainants the Locker contained Gold jewellery assessed at 32,00,000/-, Silver jewellery, cash and antiques, valued at 1,85,000/- (excluding antique value), Wrist watches valued at 34,000/- and bank and postal documents.

4. It is averred by the Complainants that the OP Bank did not follow the guidelines of RBI and because of deficiency in service on the part of the OP Bank, their Safe Deposit Locker No. 1/46 along with several other Safe Deposit Lockers of several other Consumers had been broken open and burgled and all valuables kept therein, stolen. Alleging deficiency in service on the part of the OP Bank, the Complainants filed Consumer complaint before the State Commission seeking compensation of their loss and damages to the extent of 34,19,000/- alongwith 15,00,000/- towards mental trauma, alongwith interest @ 15% p.a. and 15,000/- towards cost of litigation.

5. The Complaint was resisted by the OP Bank before the State Commission. They denied all the allegations leveled by the Complainants and submitted that apart from the security measure adopted by the OP Bank in compliance to the directions issued by the RBI, as also that of the OP Bank, the OP Bank had installed Fire Detection and Alarm System, Security Alarm System and CCTV system in its entire premises inside and outside the branch to guard against any untoward incident. The said Fire Detection and Alarm System, Security Alarm System and CCTV system were operational at the time of the incident. But the miscreants had neutralized the Fire Detection and Alarm System and Security Alarm System to facilitate the incident. They further neutralized the CCTV cameras one by one and in course of that their activities were recorded in the Digital Video Recorders (DVRs). There were three DVRs installed in the branch and out of those, the miscreants took away one of them which has been later recovered by the police. It is pertinent