Rs 20 ‘wrongly’ debited from bank account, Punjab man wins Rs 15,000 compensation

In a recent decision, a consumer commission in Punjab awarded Rs 15,000 in compensation to a man whose bank mistakenly deducted Rs 20 from his savings account for the Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY) without his consent. The presiding member and member of the commission, Yadwinder Pal Singh Baath and Renu Gandhi, respectively, found that the bank's failure to promptly restore the wrongly deducted amount and issue an apology constituted service deficiencies.

Although the bank later refunded the Rs 20 along with interest and issued an apology, the commission ruled that these actions did not fully rectify the lapse, especially since the complainant had to file a consumer complaint to achieve the correction. The commission directed the bank to pay Rs 15,000, covering both the litigation costs and the mental distress suffered by the customer.