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State Order
State Order
NEW DELHI
BEFORE:
HON'BLE MR. PREM NARAIN,PRESIDING MEMBER
2. Brief facts of the case are that the respondent had taken a loan amount of Rs.5,61,000/-
from the opposite party/petitioner bank. The loan was disbursed on 23.07.2007. Later on when
the complainant contacted the developer agency, the complainant was informed that the banker
cheque was not received by the agency. Therefore, the complainant reissued the banker cheque
and the same was issued in the month of April, 2009. The bank started charging interest from
the date of original disbursement i.e. 23.07.2007. The complainant filed a complaint bearing
No.200/2010 before the Consumer Complaint Dispute Redressal Forum, Thane, (in short ‘the
District Forum’). The District Forum vide its order dated 13.01.2015 passed the following
order:-
“ORDER
3. Aggrieved with the order dated 13.01.2015 of the District Forum, the opposite
party/petitioner herein preferred an appeal bearing No.FA/15/271 before the State
Commission. The State Commission vide its order dated 16.03.2018 partly allowed the appeal
and found bank to be liable only to refund the interest charged on the loan amount of
Rs.5,61,000/- from 01.09.2007 to 31.03.2009. Aggrieved by this order, the opposite
party/petitioner bank has filed the present revision petition.
4. Heard the learned counsel for the petitioner at the admission stage and perused the record.
5. Learned counsel for the petitioner argued that though incidence of the operation of the
State Commission’s order may not be significant in terms of monetary value, however, this will
establish a wrong precedent and therefore, the revision petition has been filed. It was argued by
the learned counsel that the disbursement of loan was made on 23.07.2007 and it only means
that the amount had gone out of the fund of the petitioner bank and therefore, the petitioner
bank was entitled to charge interest from that date. The learned counsel stated that as per the
Webster’s Dictionary, the term “disbursement” means payment that fulfils a contractual or
business arrangement. Thus as per the loan agreement, the interest is chargeable from the date
of disbursement. The petitioner bank, though, has again issued the banker cheque in April,
2009, however that does not change the date of disbursement of the loan. The State
Commission has wrongly taken the date of April 2009 to be the date of disbursement. Thus, the
order of the State Commission is erroneous and against the basic principles of loan
disbursement and needs to be rectified by this Commission.
6. I have carefully considered the arguments of learned counsel for the petitioner and have
examined the record. The fact that the petitioner bank has again issued the banker cheque in
April, 2009, clearly shows that actual amount was not debited from the funds of the petitioner
bank in 2007 because the banker cheque was not actually encashed in 2007. Obviously, no
bank will pay the amount twice. Thus, if the actual disbursement of amount of loan has taken
place in April, 2009 and the fund of loan amount remained with the bank even though banker
cheque was issued in 2007 (but, not encashed), there should be no question of bank charging
interest from 2007 to April, 2009. Accordingly, in my view, the order dated 16.03.2018 of the
State Commission does not suffer from any infirmity and is not against the accepted principles
of financial propriety.
7. Based on the above discussion, I do not find any illegality, material irregularity or
jurisdictional error in the order dated 16.03.2018 of the State Commission, which calls for any
interference from this Commission. Accordingly, RP No.1859 of 2018 is dismissed at the
admission stage.
......................
PREM NARAIN
PRESIDING MEMBER