Chennai: The Chennai North District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has directed an international private bank to pay a compensation of Rs 17 lakh to a customer – an employee of the same bank – after a cheque from a courier company bounced en route. The complainant, L. Dinesh Kumar, has been working as a senior analyst with Standard Chartered Bank for the past six years. According to him, a cheque he received from a third party bounced due to insufficient funds, and the bank sent the cheque to his address via DTDC Express. The bank said the cheque was delivered in February 2024. When he did not receive the cheque, Dinesh complained to the bank and the courier company. Later, when he went to the DTDC office for verification, the employees admitted that the cheque was lost and could not be traced. Dinesh then approached the bank and lodged a complaint.
Based on this, a DTDC official called and confirmed that they would compensate for the loss in transit and Dinesh also provided the required documents sought by the official. However, later, DTDC claimed that the cheque had already been delivered and it also had the signature proof. According to Dinesh, the signature on the courier acknowledgement was forged. After losing the dishonoured cheque, he faced a huge financial crisis, but he could not file a legal case against the cheque issuer. When the matter came before the commission, the commission headed by chairman D. Gopinath and members Kavita Kannan and V. Ramamurthy dismissed the complaint against DTDC, saying, “It is the responsibility of the bank to take action against DTDC for alleged non-delivery of the mail. And the bank is liable for not returning the dishonoured cheque to Dinesh and for deficiency in banking service.” Following this, the forum directed the bank to pay the amount of the dishonoured cheque – Rs 17 lakh – as compensation for deficiency in service, mental agony, pain and suffering, and added another Rs 5,000 for litigation costs.
