BEFORE THE TELANGANA STATE CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL COMMISSION:HYDERABAD ( ADDITIONAL BENCH)

C.C.21/2021 Between :

Smt.M.Saraswathamma, W/o.late M.Suryanarayana Raju, Aged: 70 years, Occ:Household, R/o.27, 3 RT, S.R.Nagar, Hyderabad.

7075 773527. … Complainant And

1.The Branch Manager, Karur Vysya Bank, Sanjeev Reddy Nagar Brach, S.R.Nagar, Hyderabad-500 036

040 – 29557907

2. The Managing Director & CEO, The Karur Vysya Bank Ltd., 20, Erode Road, Vadivel Nagar, LNS Karur – 639 002, Tamil Nadu.

3. The CVO, The Karur Vysya Bank Ltd., P.O.Box no.21, Erode Road, Karur – 639 002, Tamilnadu.

4. The Regional Manager, Karur Vysya Bank, 5-8-363 to 365 ( 2^nd floor), Chirag Ali Lane, Abids, Hyderabad -5001. Opposite parties Counsel for the Complainant : M/s.Vamaraju Sri Krishnudu Counsel for the Opposite Parties: M/s.G.Ramesh Babu –

OPs.1, 2 & 4 CORAM : Hon’ble Sri V.V.Seshubabu, Member (J), And Hon’ble Smt.R.S.Rajeshree, Member (NJ)

FRIDAY, THE TWENTIETH DAY OF OCTOBER, TWO THOUSAND TWENTY THREE .

Order ( Per Hon’ble Smt.R.S.Rajeshree, Member (NJ)

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01). The complaint is filed u/s.17(1)(a)(i) of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 against the opposite parties to direct them jointly and severally as follows:

i. To pay a sum of Rs.1,50,00,000/- which is lying in the account no.1446175000000271 of the deceased husband of the complainant;

ii. To award a sum of Rs.10,50,000/- towards interest @ 12% p.a. from 19.9.2020;

iii. To award a sum of Rs.10,00,000/- towards liquidated damages for causing mental agony, inconvenience and hardship caused by the opposite parties to the complainant; and iv. To pay costs of Rs.50,000/-.

02). The case of the complainant is that her husband Sri M.Suryanarayana Raju was maintaining S.B. Account bearing no.1446175000000271 with opposite party no.1 branch wherein she was the nominee for the said account and on 5.9.2020 her husband died. After his death, she had made an application on 19.9.2020 to the bank claiming the balance amount lying in his account by submitting his Death Certificate and also relevant documents and the said application was duly acknowledged by opposite party no.1 bank and that she had approached several times to the bank requesting the payment of amount, but the opposite party had been postponing the same on one or the other pretext and it is more than a month that the opposite party had not acted upon her letter and that she being a senior citizen and having no other source of income is depending on the said deposit amount lying in her deceased husband’s account.

The opposite party after several requests had informed that her deceased husband was the co-obligant to a housing loan availed by their son and daughter-in-law, Sri.M.Srinivas Raju and Smt.M.Nagamani. The complainant further submits that her husband was of 73 years of age at the time of alleged sanction of loan and that as per the guidelines, the Bank was not supposed to sanction any loan to her deceased husband considering his age as he did not have any earning capacity; that the Bank had violated the guidelines and circulars issued by RBI as they failed to pay the amount to the nominee immediately after the death of the account holder. As such, she got issued a legal notice on 9.11.2020 to which the opposite party had replied on 4.12.2020 making all false and concocted allegations and further asked the complainant to submit family member certificate/legal heir certificate, no objection certificate from all the legal heirs etc. and also intimated that Rs.3,58,932.32 ps. has been debited from S.B. Account on 23.10.2020 and the said amount was adjusted towards the housing loan account and similarly another amount of Rs.6,91,359.37 ps. was debited and adjusted towards the housing loan account. This act of deducting the amount from the deceased husband’s account is illegal and unethical act, as the said deductions are subsequent to the death of the account holder and when there is a nominee to the said account without there being any permission f