Rs 50.65 lakh penalty imposed on SBI for misplacing documents of mortgage borrower

Jaipur: The consumer state commission, Rajasthan has imposed a penalty of Rs 50.65 lakh on State Bank of India (then SBBJ) for not returning the property and FD documents to a mortgage borrower even after he had paid off the loan. The bank reportedly misplaced the documents that were in its possession.

The commission also directed the bank to pay an interest rate of 9% on the penalty amount from October 25, 2017 when the complaint was filed to the date the penalty is paid to the borrower. The commission termed this negligence an unfair trade practice.

The complaint was Vishnu Narayan Mathur, a resident of Glass Factory of Tonk Road area. The order was issued by the bench of judicial members Kamal Kumar Bagadi and Meena Mehta.

“The complainant had obtained the mortgage to build a house in April 1981. He put the sale deed letter of the plot and the documents of an FD amounting to nearly Rs 6.95 lakh as collateral. Vishnu paid off his loan on December 5, 2014 and got the NOC from the bank in January 2015,” said advocate Devendra Mohan Mathur.

As per the complaint, Vishnu asked the bank to return his property and FD documents several times. He later came to know that the bank had misplaced the documents. He filed a complaint with the consumer state commission.