IANS

New Delhi, Jun 21: A bank is justified in closing the account of a customer who fails to provide permanent account number (PAN) card details, Delhi's top consumer court has said.

Refusing to grant any relief to the customer whose account was closed by the HDFC Bank for want of PAN card details, Delhi State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission's President B.A. Zaidi said: "The HDFC bank cannot be faulted for its attitude in closing the account in the circumstances."

The commission was hearing an appeal filed by Ramesh Chand, who contended that he suffered due to incomplete financial transactions as the bank had closed the account without his consent.

The commission, in a recent order, also held that the bank was not guilty of deficiency in service as it had offered to the complainant the facilities of its direct banking channels for utility payments, cash deposits, withdrawals and fund transfers as an alternative.

Chand had approached the commission seeking directions to the bank to reopen the account.

The commission also agreed with the observations of a district consumer forum which had noted that the bank intimated Chand about closing of the account in view of the high volume transactions which were not proportionate to the business conducted through the bank.

Earlier, the bank had contended that as per the Reserve Bank of India guidelines on anti-money laundering it had conducted a review of all the accounts and observed that the volume of transactions in the account of the complainant with respect to cash withdrawal or deposits, and cheque deposits was very high and were not commensurate with the business conducted with it.