Canara Bank puts man in defaulters' list, forced to pay Rs 5 lakh damages

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has ordered Canara Bank to pay Rs 5 lakh compensation to a person, whose name figured on the defaulters’ list even eight years after he had closed the loan. The commission president, Justice P.Q. Barkathali, ordered “reasonable” damages of '5 lakh plus interest of 12 per cent till date of realisation to advocate Reghukumar, the petitioner, who took a car loan from the bank’s Sasthamangalam branch. The bank and Credit Information Bureau (India) Ltd (CIBIL) were opposite parties.

Mr Kumar filed the suit under section 17 of Consumer Protection Act claiming '25 lakh and a cost of '25,000 for deficiency of service on the part of the bank and CIBIL. He took the loan on May 23, 2002, closed it on April 30, 2008, took another loan from Christ Nagar branch of Vijaya Bank on December 2, 2010 and closed it on December 31, 2015. But the Vijaya Bank branch manager informed him on December 8, 2015 that he still owed Canara Bank Sasthamangalam branch '71,463 according to the credit report of CIBIL.

Mr Kumar cited this as deficiency of service and sued the bank and CIBIL. The bank contended that steps were taken to cancel the hypothecation when the complaint was received and no adverse report was sent to CIBIL. Also, steps were taken to correct the CIBIL report. CIBIL denied the allegations and contended that it was an unnecessary party in the proceedings. The judge ruled that CIBIL was not liable as the list of defaulters was published on the basis of information given by the bank.