Bank told to pay Rs 70,000 for delaying passbook

CHENGALPATTU: The Chengalpattu district consumer court ruled a government bank to pay Rs 70,000 to a retired government staff after he sued them for delaying his passbook for close to a year after opening an account. The complainant Kumaresan, a resident of Anna Nagar opened an account at Canara Bank in the year 2016 and paid Rs 1,000 after which he requested for an ATM card. The bank staff made him sign all the necessary documents and promised to send an ATM card and his passbook within the next few days. However, despite waiting for several weeks he received only his ATM card but not the passbook. Following this, Kumaresan got in touch with the bank staff multiple times with no response and when they refused to send his passbook over the next nine months, he filed an RTI requesting answer. He was also horrified to know that the bank had levied Rs 280 as ATM maintenance charges and Rs 386 as system charges despite not providing his passbook.