ICICI Bank fined Rs 2.5 million for lost property documents

The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) has ruled that ICICI Bank must pay Rs 25 lakh in compensation for misplacing the original property title documents submitted by a complainant as collateral for a housing loan. The complaint, filed by Manoj Madhusudhanan through advocate Swetank Shantanu, sought compensation for deficiency in services.

According to the complaint, ICICI Bank had approved a housing loan of Rs 18.6 million in Bangalore in April 2016. After the sale deed was executed, the bank retained several original property documents, including the registered sale deed and possession certificate. As the bank did not provide scanned or true copies, Madhusudhanan filed a complaint in June 2016. The bank later informed him that the documents were lost in transit from Bangalore to its central storage facility in Hyderabad, transported by a courier company.

Since the bank failed to resolve the issue, Madhusudhanan approached the Banking Ombudsman. In September 2016, the Banking Ombudsman directed the bank to issue a duplicate copy of the lost documents, publish a public notice about the loss, and pay the complainant Rs 25,000 for deficiency in service.

Madhusudhanan then escalated the matter to the National Consumer Commission, alleging extreme negligence on the bank's part and emphasising that copies of documents could not replace the original documents. He sought Rs 50 million in compensation for mental distress and losses incurred.

The NCDRC, based on the evidence presented, found the complaint for compensation due to deficiency in service to be legitimate. It also noted that the issue at hand involved compensating the complainant for potential future losses, and the bank could not shift responsibility to the courier company.

The commission ruled in favour of the complainant, directing ICICI Bank to obtain, at its own expense, all reconstructed and duly certified copies of the documents provided by the complainant as collateral at the time of the housing loan's registration. Furthermore, ICICI Bank was instructed to pay Rs 25 lakh as compensation for deficiency in services and an additional Rs 50,000 to cover litigation costs.