The Udaipur District Consumer Commission ordered SBI to refund Rs 9,000 and pay Rs 7,000 in compensation and legal costs after a customer reported a short cash dispensing.
The Udaipur District Consumer Commission in Rajasthan has held State Bank of India liable for deficient service after a customer said an ATM took Rs 10,000 from his account but dispensed only Rs 1,000. The commission ordered SBI to return the missing Rs 9,000 and also pay Rs 7,000 in compensation and legal costs.
According to the order, issued on September 24 by president Suman Gaur and member Manish Parmar, the bank could not avoid responsibility by blaming the ATM operator. The commission said SBI had shown negligence and then tried to pass the matter to the agency that ran the machine, even though no step was taken to restore the extra amount to the customer’s account.
The dispute dated back to March 10, 2017, when the complainant said he tried to withdraw Rs 10,000 from an ATM owned by another bank to pay for his wife’s medical treatment. He said the machine released only Rs 1,000, while his SBI account was debited for the full amount. He complained online to SBI within three hours, followed by a written complaint, but the CCTV footage that might have clarified the incident was never obtained despite correspondence between the bank and the ATM operator. The banking ombudsman later rejected his plea in October 2017, sending him to another forum.
The commission said the customer had done what was expected of him by immediately reporting the problem to his bank, which held his savings account and had issued the debit card. It rejected SBI’s claim that only the ATM service provider could investigate the matter, noting that a customer would naturally turn to his own bank after a failed transaction. In a broader trend, consumer commissions have repeatedly held SBI responsible in similar ATM-related disputes when the bank has failed to produce convincing records or act quickly on complaints. The ruling underscores that banks cannot simply shift the burden to third-party ATM operators when customers report unauthorised or excess deductions.
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