The State Bank of India has been directed by the Delhi Consumer Commission to pay Rs 4.10 lakh to a 62-year-old woman for misplacing their draft 10 years ago.
NEW DELHI: The State Bank of India has been directed by the Delhi Consumer Commission to pay Rs 4.10 lakh to a 62-year-old woman and her daughter-in-law, who held a joint saving account, for misplacing their draft 10 years ago.
"If there is either mishandling or loss (of cheques/ drafts) from the custody of the bank and they are deposited or encashed by unauthorised person, it amounts to deficiency in service for which the bank has to compensate the consumer," the Commission's President Justice J D Kapoor said.
The service of the kind the banks provide vis-à-vis receipt and encashment of cheques and drafts should be perfect and without any fault as a consumer repose full faith in the bank, the Commission said in a recent order.
Its observations came on a complaint by Sheela Wanti and her daughter-in-law Sunita Nagpal, residents of Rohini here, who had alleged that a draft of Rs four lakh deposited by them in June, 1997, was misplaced by the SBI causing them financial loss and mental agony.
The bank controverted the charges of deficiency in its service claiming the complainants had committed fraud on it by opening another account in a different bank and withdrawing the entire amount through cheque the same day on which the draft was deposited in SBI.
The commission, however, differed from the bank's view noting that the pay-in-slip with stamp of the bank demonstrated that the draft was duly received by it and that it had even lodged an FIR with regard to the loss of the draft.
These urchins may regard glue sniffing as "harmless" but doctors feel otherwise.
"It has many harmful effects ranging from short-term effects such as hallucinations, blackouts, sickness and dizziness to long-term effects of damage to brain, heart, liver, kidneys and death," says city-based Dr Swati Konar.
Agreed Dr SK Dasgupta, "Glue sniffing is dangerous, it's as dangerous as cocaine intake. Toluene, the solvent found in many glues, actions on our brains the same way as notorious cocaine does. It also favours depression."
"It could also cause dangerous side effects on behaviour such as euphoria and slurred speech. If it is daily used over a period of six months, it could cause permanent brain damage," he warns.
Dr Dasgupta, who shuttles between Kolkata and Delhi every week, is also a consultant with an NGO which provides food and shelter to several homeless kids in the eastern metropolis.
According to a recent survey conducted by Bal Sahyog and Indian Alliance of Child Rights, Delhi's five million-odd street children suffer from a slew of sexually-transmitted diseases, drug abuses, social neglect and crime that triggers insecurity among them.
However, the police are at their wits' end. "It's not illegal. Officially, we cannot prosecute anyone sniffing glue. But, if anyone complains, we can shift the homeless kids to a shelter," says a senior officer.
SBI also failed to prove its allegations of fraud by the complainants as the account in another bank was not opened by either of the women but was in the name of somebody else, the Commission noted.
"Complainant is not concerned as to how this draft fell in the hands of unauthorised persons and was encashed in the account of some other bank," it said, directing the bank to pay Rs 4.10 lakh, including the value of the draft and the compensation, within a month.
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