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ON May 21 this year, a resident of Gurgaon deposited in the drop-box kept at his bank in Connaught Circus, a demand draft issued in his name for Rs 47,195. During the third week of June, when he checked his statement of account, he was surprised to find that the money had not been credited to his account. He immediately took out the counterfoil of the pay-in slip in which he had written down all the details of the demand draft and called the bank. He had to talk to a couple of people, before he could get to the officer who could answer his query. According to the officer, the draft could not be credited because the draft-issuing bank had inadvertently stamped on the demand draft, July 15, instead of May 15. Now, first of all, the bank that issued the DD made a mistake and stamped July 15 instead of May 15, which was sheer negligence. Then the bank where the customer credited the DD was no less negligent. If the DD was post-dated, they should have immediately informed the customer and sent it back, so that he would have got a fresh DD from the party which had issued the draft. Instead, the bank just kept quiet for over a month, till the customer made enquiries about it. He had to then send someone to the bank to collect the DD and then send it to the party which had issued the draft, for a new draft. The result of this combined negligence of the two banks was that the customer did not have the benefit of the money for a month-and-a-half and also the interest on the amount. Fortunately, he was out of town during that period and, therefore, had not issued any cheques. Or else he would have had to face the ignominy of his cheques being dishonoured. But what worried the consumer most during this period was the fact that the demand draft had been put into the drop-box. Earlier, a bank customer would present the cheque or a demand draft, as the case may be, at the designated counter where a bank employee would receive it and put the seal of the bank with the date on which it was received on the counter foil of the pay-in-slip. So if the cheque was not credited, the customer had this counterfoil as proof of his having tendered the cheque. Now with banks introducing drop-box facilities, depositing a cheque has certainly become easy. However, if a bank misplaces the cheque or loses it before it is entered into their computer or ledger (with fans running at full speed, sometimes you see cheques flying), and denies ever having received the cheque, then the issue becomes complicated. (Of course, since the decision to put drop-boxes is that of the bank, the bank has to take responsibility for the consumer not having an acknowledgement receipt or proof of having paid the cheque and has to go by the consumer's word on it). Consumers feel that at least for cheques of larger denominations, the bank should give an acknowledgement receipt of having received it. Or they must come out with a computerised system that gives the consumer some kind of a receipt. Or, for the time-being, even a simple arrangement like keeping the bank's seal next to the drop-box would suffice. When the drop-boxes were first introduced, some banks did just that, so that customers themselves would put the seal on the counterfoil after dropping the cheque. This was, however, discontinued. What bank depositors do not know (and banks thrive on that ignorance), however, is that the banking regulator, the Reserve Bank of India, has clearly said that (a) customers should not be compelled to drop cheques in drop-boxes; (b) consumers should be given the option of either dropping the cheques in the drop-boxes or tendering these at the counters and getting acknowledgement receipts; and (c) consumers should be made aware of this option so that they can make a choice. The RBI, in its circular of December 18,2006, addressed to all scheduled commercial banks, and of December 28, 2006, addressed to all primary urban cooperative banks, even goes to the extent of saying that banks should display a message giving consumers this option and it should be in English, Hindi and the regional language. Banks, of course, find it convenient to ignore this circular and exploit the ignorance of consumers. So remember, you have
every right to demand acknowledgement of your having tendered a cheque
or a draft. And the banks cannot deny that to you. And if you find any
bank not following the RBI circular on this issue, complain to the
regulator.
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