The Cuddalore District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has directed the Vriddhachalam Cooperative Urban Bank to pay ₹1 lakh in compensation to an employee of the bank for having lost the original title deed of his property against which he had taken a loan.
Kesavan, of Vriddhachalam, said in his petition that he had taken a loan of ₹2.50 lakh from the bank in 1996 by putting up his property title deed as collateral. After repaying the loan, he was given a discharge receipt in 2016. However, the bank did not return the title deed. Aggrieved, he moved the commission.
The bank informed the commission that the title deed was lost during an audit, and it could not be located despite the best efforts.
Finding the bank liable for deficiency in service, the commission, headed by president and judge D. Gopinath, held that nearly eight years had passed since the discharge receipt was issued, but the legal injury to the complainant continued to this day. There were no rules or guidelines for the return of documents collected by banks or lending institutions within a reasonable time to borrowers. “This unintentional lacuna is being exploited by certain financial institutions, which withhold such important and valuable documents for arbitrary reasons, and in some cases, like the present one, they negligently lose them,” the commission said.
The commission directed the bank to pay ₹1 lakh in compensation to the petitioner for deficiency in service. The bank was ordered to get the certified registered copies of the title deed at its own expense and hand them over to the complainant within two months. It also awarded Mr. Kesavan ₹5,000 in legal expenses.
