The Namakkal District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (DCDRC) directed a bank to pay ₹10 lakh in compensation to a customer on Thursday, May 9, 2024.
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V. Nagappan (68), a resident of Anaimalai near Pollachi in Coimbatore district pledged his land to a finance company at Udumalpet in October 2017 and got a loan of ₹20 lakh. Later, the finance company merged with a bank. Meanwhile, in 2020, Mr. Nagappan decided to sell his land and approached the bank to return his land documents and he was ready to settle the loan amount. But bank officials claimed the land documents were missing and assured they would find them. But two years passed and the bank was unable to find the documents.
Following this, in January 2023, Mr. Nagappan filed a case at Coimbatore DCDRC. Later for speedy trial, the case was transferred to Namakkal DCDRC in February 2024. The DCDRC Commissioner V. Ramaraj on Thursday directed the bank to pay ₹10 lakh in compensation for Mr. Nagappan within four weeks and also to get duplicate document copies from the registrar office and an untraceable certificate from the police station. Failing to get these certificates in four weeks, the bank has to pay ₹5,000 per day until the certificates are handed over to the customer, the DCDRC added in its order.
Similarly, in December 2021, M. Sakthivel (40), a resident of Nehru Nagar near Kalapatti in Coimbatore district, based on an advertisement from a construction company, he had paid ₹21 lakh to construct a house and also applied for a housing loan at a bank, which was sanctioned by the bank.
But as per promise, the construction company did not start the construction and had also not registered the land in the name of Mr. Sakthivel. Following this, he filed a case at the Coimbatore DCDRC and later it was transferred to the Namakkal DCDRC. Inquiring the case, the DCDRC on Thursday directed the construction company to pay ₹21 lakh paid by the customer with nine percent interest from the date of payment made in 2021. The Court also directed the company to pay ₹5 lakh in compensation for deficiency in service.