Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore   

Consumer body plea to Union Finance Minister

Staff Reporter

`Banks should accept cheques, DDs across the counter'

Coimbatore: The Coimbatore Consumer Cause (CCC) has appealed to the Union Finance Minister to direct the banks to dispense with the practice of insisting customers to deposit instruments in a drop box and refusing to issue a counterfoil with seal as an acknowledgement for the receipt of the same.

The president of CCC, C.R. Rajkanth, in a memorandum has pointed out that both the public sector and private sector banks had embarked on implementing new systems to meet the fierce competition arising out of globalisation and introduction of information technology in the banking sector.

Counterfoil

These banks had placed drop boxes asking the customers to drop cheque/demand draft (DD) in the box dispensing with the practice of issuing a counterfoil with a seal as an acknowledgement for the receipt of the instrument. The irony was that businessmen who come to deposit cheques and demand drafts for collection which were either drawn at the same branch or even those drawn in favour of the particular branch were also asked to deposit the same in the cheque drop box.

Long wait

The customers would have to wait for nearly two to three hours for the box to be opened and the cheques sent for clearance or realisation. In fact, when customers come for presenting outstation cheques and drafts for realisation, even they were asked to deposit the same in a box and were not issued any acknowledgement.

In the event of the instrument getting misplaced or lost in the process of being sent to the clearance centre for realisation, the customer was at risk and the banks refuse to accept any onus or burden of responsibility for the instrument, he said. When customers faced difficulties owing to misplaced instruments, the consumer courts had ruled that refusing to accept instruments when tendered across the counter would amount to deficiency in service causing mental agony and had awarded compensation.

Directive

Urging the Minister to issue a directive to the banks to accept instruments and issue acknowledgements when tendered across the counter at a branch, Mr. Rajkanth pointed out that in cases where the customers reside away from the bank and could not visit personally, the banks could place a drop box for instruments as and where they deem fit.

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