Haryana

Panchkula

CC/339/2019

RAMAN SHARMA. - Complainant(s)

Versus

GENERAL MANAGER,STATE BANK OF INDIA SPL P.B.B. - Opp.Party(s)

COMPLAINANT IN PERSON

17 Oct 2022

ORDER

BEFORE THE DISTRICT CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL COMMISSION,  PANCHKULA

 

                                                       

Consumer Complaint No	:	339 of 2019
Date of Institution	:	13.06.2019
Date of Decision	:	17.10.2022

 

 

1. Raman  Sharma S/o Sh.Faqir Chand Sharma
2. Seema Sharma W/o Sh. Raman Sharma

 

Both are resident  of House Number 111-B, Wadhawa Nagar, Dhakoli Zirakpur, District Mohali Punjab.

 

3. Vipan Kumar S/o Sh. Faqir Chand Sharma, R/o House No.787, Sector-16, Panchkula(Haryana).

                                                                           ….Complainants

 

Versus

General Manager, State Bank of India SPL P.B.B.Panchkula SCO No.217, Sector-14, Panchkula Branch Code 04172 through Branch Manager.

                                                                                                                                                                                                   ….Opposite Party

COMPLAINT UNDER SECTION 35 OF THE CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT, 2019.

 

Before:              Sh. Satpal, President.

Dr. Pawan Kumar Saini, Member.

Dr. Sushma Garg, Member.

 

For the Parties:   Complainant No.1 in person & Authorised representative  on behalf of the complainants No.2 & 3.   

Sh.Sajeev Gupta, Advocate alongwith Sh.Raj Kumar Kainth, authorized representative of the  OP.

 

ORDER

(Per Satpal, President)

1.             Briefly stated, the facts as averred in the complaint are that a home loan of Rs.9,00,000/- for the purpose of purchasing a plot was sanctioned  by OP. The arrangement letter containing the detailed terms and conditions was executed between the complainants and the OP on 09.03.2013 and loan was advanced vide loan account no.32888673058. It is averred that as per the said arrangement letter dated 09.03.2013 the premium of home loan insurance cover was shown as Nil/Zero and that the complainants have not received any insurance policy till date. The complainants have paid the entire amount of loan as advanced vide loan account no.32888673058 and accordingly, asked the OP to return their original documents but the OP did not return  the documents stating that outstanding balance qua loan account no. 32888770540, vide which insurance premium amount was financed, is still payable. It is averred that the complainants never requested the OP to issue the insurance policy covering the risk of loan amount of Rs.9,00,000/-, nor there was any such terms and conditions in the sanction letter as well as arrangement letter dated 09.03.2013. It is further alleged that the OP did not ask the complainants to pay the installment qua insurance policy from year 2013 till June 2018. The complainants never signed any agreement pertaining to repayment of loan related to insurance policy. The loan account no.32888770540 was never reflected in the account of the complainants. There was a scheme of free group personal accident insurance cover for home loan borrowers but the said scheme was discontinued w.e.f. 02.07.2013. The complainants have inquired from the bank vide e-mail dated 18.07.2018 about the insurance policy but no response was received. The complainants asked the OP to close the home loan account no.32888673058 as only Rs.41 was left outstanding but bank has refused by stating that the loan amount of Rs.34,910/- is outstanding till 21.10.2018 qua the insurance loan account no. 32888770540. A legal notice was sent to OP on 13.02.2019 through registered post but no response was received.  It is averred that the Op even after the receipt of email as well as legal notice is still debiting Rs.307/- per month from the account no.32872680246 of the complainants. Due to the act and conduct, the complainants have suffered financial loss and mental agony, physical harassment; hence the present complaint.

2.             Upon notice, OP appeared through counsel and filed written statement controverting the contentions of the complainants as raised in the complaint. It is stated that the complainants had submitted applications for covering the risk of house loan vide insurance cover of SBI life Insurance under Rinraksha Scheme. It is stated that the complainants had duly signed the applications as well as the other necessary papers which are available on record from page 26 to 36 wherein all the details qua terms and conditions including payment of premium were given. All the averments made by the complainants in the complaint have been denied being wrong and incorrect in rest of the paras of the written statement. Thus, there is no deficiency in service on the part of the OP and prayed for dismissal of the present complaint.

3.             To prove the case, the complainant no.1 has tendered affidavit as Annexure C-A along with documents Annexure C-1 to C-13 in evidence and closed the evidence by making a separate statement. On the other hand, the ld. counsel for the OP has tendered affidavit Annexure R-A and closed the evidence.

                During the course of arguments, the learned counsel for OP has prayed for assigning a specific mark to the following documents/ papers, which are already available on record as appended with the written statement/reply:-

1. Application/Request seeking loan for payment of life insurance premium -Page No.26 & 27
2. Membership Form no.7002019556 qua SBI Life-Rin Raksha- Page No.28 to 31
3. Certificate of insurance Page 32 to 36.

The aforementioned documents are assigned a specific number i.e. Mark ‘A’ for the adjudication of the controversy in a proper and fair manner.

The learned counsel for OP has tendered the home loan application form etc. consisting of 22 pages i.e. page 1 to 22, which are taken on record as Mark ‘B’ for the adjudication of the controversy in a proper and fair manner.

The learned counsel for the OP has further tendered certain documents to show that additional loan qua payment of life insurance premium for SBI Life Insurance Cover was granted at the request of the complainants. The said documents are taken on record as Mark ‘C’, ‘D’ & ‘E’ for the adjudication of the controversy in a proper and fair manner.

4.  

5.             The sanction of home loan amounting to Rs.9,00,000/- to complainants vide sanction letter dated 08.03.2013(Annexure C-1) is not in dispute. The arrangement letter(Annexure C-2)  executed  between the parties on 09.03.2013 qua the said home of loan Rs.9,00,000/- containing detailed terms and conditions, is also not in dispute. Further, the said home loan as given to the complainants vide loan account no.32888673058 is also not in dispute. The complainants have no grievance qua the said loan account no.32888673058. The dispute between the parties is about the second loan account no.32888770540. As per complainants, the loan account no.32888770540 was neither in their knowledge nor they ever gave any consent to the opening of said loan account. During arguments, the complainant no.1, who is authorized representative of complainants no.2 & 3, reiterating the averments made in the complaint has prayed for acceptance of the complaint by granting the relief as claimed for in the complainant.

6.     The main submission of the complainants may be summerised as under:-

1. That as per arrangement letter(Annexure C-2), the premium of home loan insurance cover was  mentioned as Nil/Zero at several places and thus, the complainants were under the bonafide impression that the home loan did not require any insurance policy covering the risk qua the house loan of Rs.9,00,000/-.
2. That the complainants never made any request for the issuance of insurance policy as well as the financing of insurance premium vide a separate loan account i.e. 32888770540.
3. That the act of OP while granting the additional loan of Rs.25,990/- qua insurance policy vide account no.32888770540 was incorrect, illegal and invalid. It is contended that a sum of Rs.5,198/- per year was paid by the OP, itself w.e.f. 29.03.2013 to 22.03.2017; the details of which, are given as under:-
1. 29.03.2013                              Rs.5198/-
2.  
3.  
4.  
5.  

 

4. That the OP had first time deducted a sum of Rs.307/- from account of the complainants on 05.06.2018 and thus, the complainants were completely ignorant of the loan account no.32888770540, whereby a sum of Rs.25,990/- was financed by OP qua  the premium of insurance policy, namely, SBI Life Insurance Under Rin Raksha Scheme.
5. That the Interest Certificate(Annexure C-8) did not reflect the disputed loan account no.32888770540.
7.  
8.  
1. Home Loan                                                              Rs.9,00,000.00
2.  
3.  

2. Purpose:

1.  
2.  
14.  

The loan will be disbursed only on the following conditions:

1.  
2.  
9.  
217.  
5625.  
230.  

c) The loan will be disbursed as under:(Applicable where loans for constructionis desired or purchase is through payment in installments)

Construction Stages
	SBI Life Premia
	Total(Loan amount+SBI Life Premia

 

9.                From the above, it is evident that amount of insurance was shown as Zero and accordingly a man of ordinary prudence placed in such circumstances, could easily assume that there would be no charges for any insurance cover. The complainants committed no mistake while  making the opinion that no separate insurance policy was required as the arrangement letter executed between them and the OP had mentioned the amount of insurance premium as Zero.

10.            At this stage, it would be pertinent to mention here that a person while approaching the bank for availing the loan facility has to put his/her signatures on several pages, which generally are voluminous spanning over several pages with small alphabets/letters, which are difficult to peruse and read minutely by a man of ordinary prudence exercising due diligence. Apart from this, the terms and conditions in the loan related papers are found, very often, vague and confusing and thus, the OP cannot draw any benefit out of the applications Mark A, B, C & D, which allegedly bears the signatures of complainant No.1, vide which the facility of separate loan was asked for covering the risk of house loan by issuance of a separate insurance policy. Apart from it, the house loan was sanctioned and released in favour of all the three complainants, whereas the insurance policy, namely, SBI life Insurance Policy under Rin Raksha Scheme was issued only in favour of one complainant i.e. Sh.Raman Sharma, leaving the other co-loanee, without any justification. The OP has provided no justification for non joining the other co-loanees no.2 & 3, namely, Smt. Seema Sharma and Sh.Vipan Kumar in the insurance policy i.e. SBI life Insurance Policy under Rin Raksha Scheme as well as in the account no. 32888770540.

11.  
12.  
13.  
14.  
15.  

1. The OP is directed to return all the original documents i.e. title deed etc. of the complainants after the clearance of the outstanding loan account qua 32888673058 by the complainants.

 

2. The OP is directed to refund the amount to the complainants as deducted by it @ Rs.307/- per month w.e.f. June, 2018 qua the insurance premium
3. The OP is directed to pay an amount of Rs.10,000/- to the complainant on account of mental agony and harassment.
4. The OP is directed to pay an amount of Rs.5,000/- as cost of litigation.

           

16.            The OP shall comply with the order within a period of 45 days from the date of communication of copy of this order failing which the complainant shall be at liberty to approach this Commission for initiation of proceedings under Section 71/72 of CP Act, against the OP. A copy of this order shall be forwarded, free of cost, to the parties to the complaint and file be consigned to record room after due compliance.

Announced on:17.10.2022

 

 

 

Dr.Sushma Garg          Dr. Pawan Kumar Saini            Satpal               

                Member                       Member                   President

 

Note: Each and every page of this order has been duly signed by me.

                                          Satpal                              

                                        President