JUDGMENT

The Thiruvananthapuram District Co-operative Bank Limited (hereinafter referred to ‘the Bank’ for short) has filed this writ petition impugning Ext.P3 order of the Kerala Co- operative Ombudsman, Thiruvananthapuram (‘the Ombudsman’ for short), as per which, they have been asked to pay 8% interest on certain amounts deposited with them by the 1st respondent.

2. According to the petitioner-Bank, the deposits in question, three in number, were made by the 1st respondent in the years 1992 and 1994 for a period of forty six months which matured for repayment, along with 12.5% interest, in the years 1996 and 1998 respectively. The Bank says that the 1st respondent, however, did not turn to accept these amounts and therefore, that these remained unpaid until 2014, when the 1st respondent approached them with the original Fixed Deposit Receipts and the Bank paid the said amounts with interest which is normally paid on a Savings Bank Account.

3. The petitioner says that the 1st respondent, however, challenged this before the learned Ombudsman, who has now issued Ext.P3 asking the Bank to pay 8% interest on these amounts on the ground that they were also at fault in not intimating the