Any person who avails any service from a bank would be open to seeking recourse to the remedies provided under the Consumer Protection Act - SC

Court: Justices DY Chandrachud and AS Bopanna 

Recently, the Top Court ruled that A consumer complaint regarding a bank's premature encashment of Joint Fixed Deposits in violation of the terms and conditions is maintainable. A person who avails of a service from a bank will fall under the meaning of the definition of a 'consumer' under the Consumer Protection Act. Therefore, any person who avails any service from a bank would be open to seeking recourse to the remedies provided under the Consumer Protection Act.

In this instant case, the complainant and his father had opened a joint FD in HDFC Bank. An amount of 75 Lakhs had been deposited in the  FD jointly in both names for 145 days. The amount was credited to the father's account on his request made on 31 May 2016. In his complaint before the State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission at Lucknow ("State Commission"), the complainant argued that upon the maturity of the FD, both the complainant and his father had jointly issued a direction to the bank for renewing it for ten days and despite this, the amount was credited solely into the father's account.

The State Commission held that the dispute was primarily between the complainant and his father and therefore, only a civil court was competent to deal with such a dispute. As a result, the NCDRC dismissed the appeal as withdrawn. In his review application, the complainant stated on affidavit that he did not instruct his counsel to withdraw the appeal. But the same was not entertained.

According to the Apex Court bench, the relevant terms and conditions of the joint FD read: "All signatories to the deposit must sign the encashment instruction in the case of premature encashment." This court noted that the essence of the complaint was that the respondent bank failed to credit the joint FD amount to both the accounts. In view of the same, the SC directed the NCDRC to dispose of the appeal.