File Complaint, Escalate, Procedure Archives -

Have a complaint against your bank? Escalate your grievance with banking ombudsman

Sat, 28 Nov 2020 06:31:00 +0000

Priyanka Sambhav

Do you have an issue with your bank? Do you feel your bank has not taken adequate steps to resolve your concern or didn’t bother to give a response to your problem? Frustrated with your bank’s complaint redressal mechanism, then you should reach out to banking ombudsman(BO)with your complaint. The BO is appointed by the bank regulator Reserve Bank of India(RBI) to resolve consumer grievances regarding banking services.

The RBI introduced the Banking Ombudsman Scheme in 2006 to enable bank consumers to raise their banking-related complaints. In 2017, RBI widened the scope of BO and included mis-selling complaints of insurance, mutual funds and any other third party products by banks too in the ombudsman scheme.

Issues that can be raised by consumers

The BO has a comprehensive list of issues on which a consumer can complain. BO including online banking related issues can take up following deficiencies –

Non-payment or inordinate delay in the payment or collection of cheques, drafts, bills, etc.
Non-payment or delay in payment of inward remittances.
Failure to issue or delay in issue of drafts, pay orders or bankers’ cheques.
Non-adherence to prescribed working hours.
Failure to provide or delay in providing a banking facility (other than loans and advances) promised in writing by a bank or its direct selling agents.
Refusal to open deposit accounts without any valid reason for the refusal.
Levying of charges without adequate prior notice to the customer.
Non-adherence by the bank or its subsidiaries to the instructions of RBI on ATM/debit card operations or credit card operations.
Non-disbursement or delay in disbursement of pension (to the extent the grievance can be attributed to the action on the part of the bank concerned, but not with regard to its employees).
Refusal to accept or delay in accepting payment towards taxes, as required by RBI/government.
Refusal to close or delay in closing the accounts.
Non-observance of RBI guidelines on engagement of recovery agents by banks.

How can I file a complaint to Banking Ombudsman?

First and foremost, you file your complaint with the bank and if the bank fails to answer you in 30 days or the response received does not give you a resolution, then you approach the banking ombudsman(BO). You must approach the BO within a year of receiving a reply or within a year or a month of making representation.
Please locate the right BO’s jurisdiction under which the bank branch against whom you have a complaint is covered. Place your complaint to the right BO branch. For any card-related issue or any other centralized operations, your billing address will determine the jurisdiction of banking ombudsman.
One can easily fill the online complaint form on banking ombudsman official website- www.bankingombudsman.rbi.org.in. Do give all the details regarding your complaint with accurate information. You can send the complaint in written mode or through the banking ombudsman website.
Submit the copies of your documents that are proof of your case along with the complaint form.
Once banking ombudsman has received your complaint form, they will examine your case and the validity of the same. After going through the matter banking ombudsman will either try for a settlement through mediation between the bank and the customer or can go further and ask banks to pay compensation if need be.
But even after taking it up with banking ombudsman, you are not satisfied with the resolution, you have the right to approach the consumer forum as the last recourse.
The consumers have to pay no fee for grievance redressal by banking ombudsman.

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How to file a PIL?

Sat, 03 Oct 2020 13:11:52 +0000

By Ikshita Parihar from Aureus Law Partners

The term Public Interest Litigation (“PIL”) has been devised for litigation by public spirited citizens for enforcement of constitutional and legal rights of any person or group of persons in public or social interest, under Article 32 & 226 of the Constitution of India. Such litigation has led to judicial activism and has proved to be advantageous in the development of a welfare society; for instance:

i) Smoking in public places was banned by the Supreme Court while hearing a PIL

ii) the Supreme Court also ordered the closure of tanneries at Kanpur that were polluting river Ganga, in a PIL filed by a renowned social worker Mr. M.C. Mehta

iii) The Supreme Court recognized the fundamental right to a speedy trial and passed an order of general release of undertrial prisoners in Bihar, in the first ever PIL.

General principles of PIL:

Any member of the public can approach the Supreme Court or the High Court for enforcing constitutional or legal rights of other persons or the public at large; provided he has sufficient interest and is acting bona fide and not for personal gain or political motives or other oblique considerations.
The Supreme Court in the case of Bandhu Mukti Morcha v. Union of India, further widened the scope by permitting PIL through a letter. The Supreme Court Guidelines specifies the following cases where a letter petition cannot be entertained as PIL:

Landlord-tenant matters
Service matters
Matters pertaining to pension and gratuity
Complaints against Central and State government departments and Local Bodies except those relating to items 1 to 10 mentioned in the list of guidelines
Admission to medical and other educational institutions
Petitions for early hearing of cases pending in High Court or subordinate courts

Further, these letter petitions will first be processed by Public Interest Litigation Cell, once a letter petition is approved, the same shall be placed before the Public Interest Litigation Bench.

The courts will prima facie verify the credentials of the petitioner before entertaining a PIL.
The court should be prima facie satisfied regarding the correctness of the contents of the petition before entertaining a PIL.
The court should be fully satisfied that substantial public interest is involved before entertaining the petition.
The court should ensure that the petition which involves larger public interest, gravity and urgency must be given priority over other petitions.
Every High Court is supposed to formulate rules for encouraging genuine PIL and discouraging PIL filed for oblique motives.
A PIL is filed under Writ Jurisdiction therefore, it can only be filed against “the State” under Article 12 of the Constitution of India. It includes Government and the Parliament of India and the Government and the Legislature of each of the States and all local and other authorities within the territory of India or under the control of the Government of India.

Procedure to file a PIL

The Supreme Court of India

i) An informal written document, email, letter etc. can account for a PIL in appropriate cases or

ii) A PIL is filed under Writ Jurisdiction i.e. under Article 32 of the Constitution of India. The petitioner shall disclose:

(a) his full name, complete postal address, e-mail address, phone number, proof regarding personal identification, occupation and annual income, PAN number and National Unique Identity Card number, if any;

(b) the facts constituting the cause of action;

(d) the nature and extent of personal interest, if any, of the petitioner (s);

(e) details regarding any civil, criminal or revenue litigation, involving the petitioner or any of the petitioners, which has or could have a legal nexus with the issue (s) involved in the Public Interest Litigation; and

(f) whether the concerned Government Authority was moved for relief (s) sought in the petition and if so, with what result.

Petitioner shall also file an affidavit stating that there is no personal gain, private motive or oblique reason in filing the Public Interest Litigation.

Note: The Court may impose exemplary costs on the petitioner (s) if it finds that the petition was frivolous or instituted with oblique or mala fide motive or lacks bona fides.

The High Courts

i) An informal written document, email, letter etc. can account for a PIL in appropriate cases or

ii) A PIL is filed under Writ Jurisdiction i.e. under Article 226 of the Constitution of India. In pursuance of the direction given in the case of State of Uttaranchal v. Balwant Singh Chaufal, each High Court has formulated different rules for ascertaining the genuineness of a PIL and the same can be accessed on their respective websites.

While a PIL is a substantially important tool in the hands of various NGOs, social workers and even the general public the same must not be abused or filed frivolously. It is imperative to undertake thorough research on the public injury issue and the people or the community affected by it, before filing any PIL.

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How To File an FIR/ Police Complaint? A Complete Guide

Fri, 02 Oct 2020 10:09:42 +0000

By Aniket Bhargava and Shruti Dutt from Aureus Law Partners

What is a Complaint and its importance

Complaint means a grievance expressed by a person in the form of certain facts which make out an offence. Any person who has a grievance regarding some fact, condition, incident, state of affairs etc. may file a complaint before an Officer in-charge within the local jurisdiction of whose police station that incident has occurred. It is not necessary to file a complaint in the same area where the crime has been committed. However, it is advised to visit the nearest police station as the complaint has to be filled immediately without any delay. Indian law contemplates that a police complaint can be filed orally as well, but in practice the police complaint is filed in writing. Nowadays, a police complaint can be filed through various modes including email, WhatsApp or other electronic mediums.

It is not necessary that only the aggrieved person files a complaint, any other person may also do so. Many a times it is seen that in rape cases the victim is often not in a condition to file a complaint due to mental or physical harm, stress and fear. In such cases, any person having knowledge of the incident like parents, relatives, friends etc. are allowed to file a complaint. The first stage of a criminal case is the First Information Report (‘FIR’). The procedure for filing an FIR is mentioned under Section 154 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (‘CrPC’). Therefore, the complaint holds high importance throughout the case proceedings.

Many a times it is seen that a person doesn’t get justice even after setting the criminal law in motion due to not properly mentioning/stating the relevant facts in their complaint. The same could also lead to dismissal of the case by the Courts.

There are various reasons associated with why sometimes even genuine complaints fail in the court of law. One such reason is that most of the time the police officials on duty at the time of registering complaint are not vigilant themselves. Secondly, the public or informant lays more emphasis on and tends to exaggerate the actual event without laying emphasis on surrounding or connecting facts which may lead to weakening the credibility of information.

Making of Report to Officer in-charge

The informant/ complainant should go to the police station having jurisdiction over the area (where the offence is committed) and report to Officer in-charge of concerned police station. In case information is given through telephone, email, WhatsApp or other electronic mediums, the informant / complainant should subsequently go to the police station for registration of FIR. The senior most Police officer available in the Police Station at any point of time i.e. either the Station House Officer (‘SHO’) or his subordinate above the rank of a constable is generally the Officer-in-charge, or the Duty Officer will receive the complaint or lodge FIR. If the SHO / Inspector is not present, a Sub-Inspector or Head Constable will be the officer-in-charge.

Recourse if Police Station refuses to register a complaint

If the Police station refuses to register the FIR , a complaint can be made at two levels. Firstly, as per Section 154 (3) of CrPC complainant can approach Senior Superintendent of Police(SSP) or (‘SSP’) Superintendent of Police (SP) for the said purpose. However, if the complaint is not registered even after that, then the next remedy is to seek help from the Judicial Magistrate. According to Section 156(3) any Magistrate empowered can order an investigation by a police officer.

Police is not to be paid any fee or money for registering the FIR and subsequent investigation. If any officer in the police station makes such a demand, a complaint should immediately be made to the senior police officers.

Important things to be kept in mind while filing a complaint/FIR

Complaint/FIR must be filed immediately. If there is any delay, mention it in the form.
If given orally, it must be taken down in writing and explained to you by the Officer in charge at a Police Station within the jurisdiction of which the offence has taken place.
Be very specific
There should be four copies recorded simultaneously, with carbon sheets in place.
Avoid complicated, technical words, terminologies and unnecessary details.
Try not to overwrite or score out words.
Ensure that the arrival/departure time is mentioned in the FIR and in the Daily Diary (DD) Register at the Police Station
It must contain authentic information, including these necessary bits of information:
- What information do you want to convey?
- In what capacity are you providing the information?
- Who is the perpetrator of the crime?
- Who has the crime been committed against – victim /complainant?
- When was it committed (time)?
- Where was it committed (specific place /locality/area)?
- Why do you think it was committed?
- Which way (actual process involved) was it committed?
- Were there any witnesses? (Names will be required here.)
- What were the losses? (Money /valuables/ possessions /physical damage etc.)
- What were the traces at the scene of the crime? (Weapons/evidence if any.)
After completion, it is a must that the document is carefully read and signed.
It must be recorded by the officer in the book maintained for this purpose by the State Government.
You have the right to and must get a copy of it for your records. You are not required to pay for the same.
You are not required by law to give an affidavit.
Never file a false complaint or give wrong information to the police. You can be prosecuted under law for giving wrong information or for misleading the police.—[Section 203, Indian Penal Code 1860].

Thus, a complaint or a FIR is the preliminary stage of initiation of case and thus considered as important and should be filed immediately without any delay. The information given to police for initiating case should be precise and accurate so that a clear case can be made out, informant should not exaggerate information or nor give false information and should restrict to only relevant facts.

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3 Steps to File Income Tax Return for a Salaried Employee

Wed, 16 Sep 2020 09:05:31 +0000

By CA Gauri Chadha

Do you find filing of income tax returns more taxing than the tax itself? To ease this tension the government has made e-filing of income tax returns quick and simple. Pre-filled forms is a step towards that. Based on your salary and TDS deduction the income tax form has all the information which you need to verify whether the data is correct or not. For salaried people the main source of income is salary and interest from savings and fd’s , now if a person is having income from only these sources and is having one house property he can file the simplest ITR form i.e ITR 1 “Sahaj” provided the total of all such incomes does not exceed 50 lakhs. We are here with the in depth details of steps required to file income tax return by following basic three rules

3 SIMPLE STEPS TO FILE INCOME TAX RETURN

STEP 1 – REGISTER/LOGIN TO INCOME TAX PORTAL

First and foremost step is to register on www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in by clicking on register yourself or login if you are already registered. There is a forgot password option as well in case you have forgotten your password. Once you are logged in click on e-file – income tax return – enter the assessment year, choose ‘ITR 1’, select filing type ‘original/revised’, select submission mode prepare and submit online, select bank account for refund and then click continue.

STEP 2 – START FILING YOUR INCOME TAX RETURN

Your return form will have all your details but you need to cross-check and modify if required. There would be 6 schedules in the form. You must go through all the schedules.. The 1st schedule will include your personal information like your name, PAN, address, aadhaar number, nature of employment and the section in which you are filing the return. If you are filling it within the due date you will have to choose sec 139(1). 2nd schedule would be the computation which will be a mirror image of your form 16. Third schedule would be the details of your tax deducted and paid which would be picked up from your form 26AS. Fourth schedule would be taxes paid and verification in which you would see the amount of tax payable or refundable along with your bank account details and verification. There are 2 other schedules which would require to fill up only when you have given any donations.

STEP 3 – E-VERIFY THE RETURN

Last but not the least . You must verify your return because until you verify the return, the filling process is not considered complete. The department will not take up your return for processing unless you have completed the verification procedure. If you delay the verification your refund will also be delayed. There are many ways by which you can e-verify your return, the most common being the aadhaar based OTP followed by net banking, ATM and demat account. If you do not wish to verify it using the above mentioned ways you can send a physical signed copy to CPC Bengaluru.

DOCUMENTS THAT YOU MUST KEEP HANDY WHILE FILING YOUR INCOME TAX RETURN:-

1) Form 16 : One of the key documents which shows your salary break up along with TDS details is your form 16. It is a document which is issued by employers to their employees to validate the fact that TDS has been deducted and deposited against their PAN. You must have both parts, part A and part B handy with you.

2) Bank Statement : The other important document which should be with you at the time of filing your return is your bank statements. Now the bank statement is to be scrutinized firstly to calculate all the interest incomes like savings interest and secondly to check if any other income has been received or any high value transaction has been done. Although all this can be verified using the other significant document which is your 26AS.

3) Form 26AS: It is also known as a tax credit certificate, where all the TDS which has been deducted by various deductors like employer, banks, tenant etc is reflected. It is basically a consolidated statement of all the deductions.

COMMON MISTAKES THAT CAN GET YOU A NOTICE

NOT REPORTING ALL INCOMES – There are few incomes which are not reflected in form 16. So that’s why it’s important to check your 26 AS too. Like interest earned on FD will reflect in 26AS and not in Form 16 .

IGNORING CAPITAL GAINS – Many a times we forget reporting the capital gains or losses which we may have made due to sale purchase of shares or mutual funds. Do remember switching from one fund to another like from liquid fund to equity is considered redemption and then reinvestment. If you have capital gains you cannot file ITR 1 and hence you tend to use the wrong form.

QUOTING WRONG TAN OF EMPLOYER – Even if a single digit out of 10 digit alphanumeric number is wrong, notice will knock your door, due to mismatch between the taxes paid.

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