St.John Ambulance Brigade v. Bank of India & Anr

G.S.SSTAN,J March 03, 2011 msr' Puge 13 of 13

35. * IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI + RFA 237/2009 % Judgment Delivered on: 3.03.2011 ST.JOHN AMBULANCE BRIGADE ..... Appellant Through : Ms. Arti Bansal, Mr. Ajay Digpaul and Ms. Neeru Gupta, Advs. versus • BANK OF INDIA & ANR. Respondent . Through : Ms. Soma Mullick and Mr. A.K. Mullick, Advs. for respondent no.1. Ms. Ruchi Kapur, Adv. for respondent no.2. CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE G.S.SISTANI Whether the Reporters of local papers may be allowed to see the judgment? To be referred to Reporter or not? Whether the judgment should be reported in the Digest? G.S.SSTAN 1 J. (ORAL) With the consent of counsel for the parties, present appeal is set down for final hearing and disposal. The appellant had filed a suit for recovery against the respondents in the sum of 4,58,500/- on 4.6.2002. A preliminary issue was framed by the trial court on 23.1.2003, which reads as under: "PREUMNARY ISSUE NOJ "Whether the suit is not barred by the limitation as alleged in the plaint?" OPP" The facts of the case, as noticed by the trial court, are that appellant is a voluntary, non-sectarian and non-profit humanitarian organization with international affiliation. The appellant was established, in the year 1901 and it renders first- RFA No.23712009 Certify that the digital file and physical file have been compared and the digital data is as per the physical file and no page is missing. 542~ aid and para-medical services through dedicated volunteers, who are solely motivated in mitigating human suffering whenever and wherever found. The appellant was operating a saving bank account no.1989 with respondent no.1 Bank for more than 25 years. The said account was closed after the appellant discovered that nine fraudulent withdrawals • amounting to Z2.85 lakhs were made from the said account on the basis of forged cheques within a period of two years. A new account was opened by the appellant. The matter of fraudulent withdrawals of the said amount came to the knowledge of the appellant on 24.5.1997 while reconciling the accounts with the bank statement. It was then discovered that certain amounts had been illegally withdrawn. The appellant forwarded necessary documents to the handwriting experts, M/s Ace Bureau of Investigating and Document Examination, for . 'I examining the authenticity of the signatures and handwriting as appeared on the cheques, in question. A report was obtained from M/s Ace Bureau regarding the cheques, in question, according to which, the said cheques were forged and fabricated. The appellant thereafteHlodged an FIR No.218/2007 on 1.6.1997 at Police Station Parliament Street. The police filed charge sheet only against respondent no.2 herein, who is an employee of the appellant herein, but no criminal case was registered against respondent no.1 Bank. Appellant thereafter issued a legal notice to the respondent. Since the notice issued to respondent no.1, for reimbursing the financial loss suffered RFA No.23712009 on account of negligence and deficient service of respondent no.1 was not responded to, the appellant filed a complaint before District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum for redressal of its grievances on the ground of deficiency of service within the scope of Section 2(g) of Consumer Protection Act, 1986. Respondent no.1 Bank contested the complaint of the appellant on the ground, inter a/ia, that the complaint was not maintainable since service of the bank does not fall under the purview of the Consumer Protection Act and that the complaint involved various intricacies in it and also highly disputed questions of fact and law, which would require recording of evidence of witnesses and scrutiny of documents. The complaint filed by the appellant was dismissed on 9.11.2001 on the ground that the matter involves examination of documents and witnesses including handwriting experts and the forum was not able to do justice in the summary proceedings and directed the appellant to approach the civil court for deciding t