Madurai District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum has directed a nationalised bank in Tallakulam to pay a compensation of ₹10,000 for withholding the title that was mortgaged by a family even seven years after repayment of the loan.
The forum also directed the bank to return the title deeds after getting necessary affidavits from the aggrieved family.
The forum headed by its president, V. Balasundarakumar, on Tuesday also asked the bank to pay a cost of ₹1,500 to the complainant.
The complainants, G. Ganesan and G. Muthukumar along with their father, N. Gopal, had got a loan of ₹95,000 for their cement ‘kirath’ works on Kalpalam Road.
However, after they failed to repay the loan, the Lok Adalat directed them to pay ₹1 lakh in a single instalment. The brothers paid the entire loan amount in 2010 and by then their father had died.
When they sought the bank to return their title deeds, the bank asked for the legal heir certificate.
Upon production, the bank asked all the three legal heirs to appear in person to collect it. The complainants claimed that the third legal heir, Thiagarajan, was mentally retarded and his whereabouts were not known.
The forum concluded that the loan was sanctioned only to Muthukumar and the memorandum of deposit of title deeds was signed only by the two complainants and their father, who were the joint owners of the mortgaged property.
The forum also said that the bank should have taken a pragmatic approach in returning the original document as the complainants could not produce medical certificate for the mentally ill legal heir, whose whereabouts were not known.
It should have returned the document after obtaining an affidavit in this regard signed before a notary public.