Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (MS)

Bengaluru, Jul 24: In an incident that is reported from the city, a bank was fined Rs 6,000 for deducting Rs 81 fine from the account of a student. The eight-year-old student had approached the consumer court objecting the deduction of Rs 81 from his account by Laxmi Vilas Bank. The court which conducted an inquiry on the whole incident announced Rs 1,000 as compensation to the boy and asked the bank to bear Rs 5,000 as the charges of the court.

The consumer court had conducted the inquiry based upon the complaint given by M K Shreyas (8), son of Mahesh Kumar, a resident of Jalahalli. The court has directed the Jalahalli branch of the bank to pay the compensation amount to the boy.

This verdict was given by the second additional district consumer grievances resolution board of the city. The court questioned the necessity of deducting Rs 81 from the bank account of the boy, though he maintained the minimum balance in his account as per the norms of the bank.

Shreyas, who is studying in St Claret’s school, was asked to open an account at Laxmi Vilas Bank in order to get his scholarship. He opened a joint account with his father and deposited an amount of Rs 1,000 on September 22, 2016. This is the minimum balance that needs to be kept in the account.

On April 1, 2017, the bank deducted Rs 114 from his account, without his knowledge saying that minimum balance was not maintained in his account. Again, Rs 371 was deducted on July 2, 2017 citing the same reason. When Shreyas visited the bank, the bank manager told him that the minimum balance is increased to Rs 3,000 and the intimation is sent to all the customers via SMS. However, though the bank has deducted the SMS service charges every month, it has not sent the said SMS to the boy. The bank manager failed to resolve the issue. Shreyas knocked on the doors of the consumer court. When the court sent the notice to the bank, the bank credited the deducted amount back into the account of Shreyas.

Later, in order to avoid the penalty for not maintaining minimum balance, Shreyas deposited Rs 2,000 on August 1, 2017 and Rs 3,000 on September 29, 2017. However, the bank deducted Rs 79 on October 1, 2017 and Rs 2 on October 4, 2017. Hence, Shreyas filed a complaint against the bank again in the consumer court.