Georgia resident Viresh Nayar was unable to prove that he had not authorised any other person to use his ATM card.
NEW DELHI – A Delhi court has dismissed a US-based NRI’s plea for recovery from a bank a sum of over Rs one lakh, which was allegedly withdrawn from his account by some unauthorised person due to the bank’s negligence.
Civil Judge (CJ) Ruchi Aggarwal rejected the plea of Georgia resident Viresh Nayar on the ground that he was unable to prove that he had not authorised any other person to use his ATM card.
While dismissing Nayar’s plea, the court also refused to rely on the statement of a man, representing Nayar as his attorney in the case, on the gound that he could not have apprised the court of the facts which were in the personal knowledge of Nayar alone.
“…it is clear that he (Nayar’s acquaintance) does not have any personal knowledge about the entire incident. He is only deposing what the plaintiff (Nayar) told him which is not permitted by law,” the court said.
“The plaintiff (Nayar)…has not been able to establish and prove that he had himself not authorised any person to use his ATM card,” it said.
“Nor has he been able to prove that he had not received the renewed ATM card and therefore, the plaintiff cannot be held to have proved his case and consequentially, is not entitled to recover any amount from the defendant (bank),” the court said.
Nayar had filed the plea against the Standard Chartered Bank for recovery of Rs 1.01 lakh saying that he was employed here with a media organisation and in 1998, he was holding an account in its south-Delhi based branch.
Nayar, in his petition, said he was using an ATM card for the account which was valid from August 1998 to August 2000 and he left his job here without changing his address and went to the USA to pursue regular studies in September 1998 and remained there till April 2001.
