The Aware Consumer

The Gujarat Food and Drug Control Administration (FDCA) has cancelled manufacturing licenses of 2 pharma companies based on risk-based inspections of 5 companies due to non-compliance to GMP norms and quality. The state drug regulator also canceled the license of one of the sections of a company that produced products which were unstable and multiple failures happened during quality testing and analysis. “Licenses were canceled because these companies could not produce the stability data as per the norms. We had to take the urgent decision to cancel licenses in the interest of public health,” informed Gujarat FDCA Commissioner Dr H G Koshia. The Gujarat FDCA had earlier cancelled 15 product licenses of 6 pharma companies based on risk-based inspections. In these risk-based inspections, it was revealed that the products of some of the companies, producing widely prescribed gastrointestinal medicines and vitamins, were not-of-standard quality (NSQ). Products also include oral rehydration salt (ORS) and medicines like azithromycin for cold and amoxicillin for bacterial infections and also antimalarial medicines. These risk based inspections are being done pan – India. NSQ medicines were also reported earlier this year from Uttrakhand, Himachal Pradesh (HP), Madhya Pradesh (MP), Andhra Pradesh (AP) and Gujarat. Licenses of 18 Indian pharma companies were cancelled based on the risk-based inspections planned in December last year. The Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) office was planning to undertake massive risk-based inspections pan-India following the World Health Organization (WHO) holding Indian pharma companies accountable for exporting contaminated medicines in the aftermath of deaths of children in Gambia and Uzbekistan. Around 76 pharma companies were inspected across 20 states/UTs by a joint team of the state and central licensing authorities in the past six months. The CDSCO had identified around 203 pharma companies and more than 25 pharma companies were issued show cause notices. Risk based inspection criteria is based on the number of sub-standard samples of the respective manufacturer found in the market in the past three years. The risk-based inspections are based on the current good manufacturing practices (cGMP) and good laboratory practices (GLP) under the Drugs & Cosmetics (D&C), Rules, 1945.These inspections which are jointly conducted by the state drug licensing authorities and the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) audits manufacturer’s compliance on sanitation, hygiene, self-inspection, quality audits, prevention of cross-contamination and bacterial contamination during production among other critical areas. Saturday, June 10, 2023 Source: pharmabiz.com

The Supreme Court on Monday said the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, is meant to encourage consumerism in the country and any technical approach in construing its provisions against consumers would defeat the objective behind its enactment. A bench of justices J K Maheshwari and M M Sundresh said a “pedantic and hyper-technical approach” would cause damage to the very concept of consumerism. The apex court’s observations came while dealing with appeals against a National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) order passed in a matter relating to completion of a housing project. The bench said the Consumer Protection Act has got a “laudable objective” and the 2019 law facilitates consumers to approach forums by providing a very flexible procedure. “It is meant to encourage consumerism in the country. Any technical approach in construing the provisions against the consumer would go against the very objective behind the enactment,” it said. The bench noted that the appellant before it is an flat allottees’ association registered under Section 6 of the Haryana Registration and Regulation of Societies (HRRS) Act, 2012, while the respondent is a builder tasked with the development of the housing project. In its verdict, the bench also observed that the association had approached the NCDRC alleging that the builder has failed in the obligation to construct and complete the promised flats within the timeline agreed upon and also questioning the additional demands raised. Later, a complaint was filed by the builder with the District Registrar of Societies alleging that the aims and objectives enunciated in the bye-laws of the appellant association were not in conformity with the HRRS Act, the top court noted. Referring to the details of the matter, the bench observed that the state registrar of Haryana had directed the association to amend its bylaws within six months indicating that any failure to comply would result in cancellation of registration granted already. The association did make an amendment which was duly registered by the Gurugram district registrar in November 2019, it noted. It also noted that subsequently, the Gurugram district registrar by an order in June 2020 put on hold the amendments, as certified earlier, on the premise that the period of six months granted expired. The registrar general of Haryana dismissed the appeal finding no error in the order of the state registrar, the bench observed. The bench noted that the appellant’s registration was not cancelled. It observed that later, the orders passed by the state registrar and the registrar general of Haryana in the matter were challenged before the Punjab and Haryana High Court along with an application for stay, and though, the matter was still pending adjudication, there was no interim order as of now. The bench noted that the appellant had filed an application bringing to the notice of the NCDRC the pendency of the writ petition before the high court. The commission had adjourned the matter awaiting appropriate orders in the petition, it noted. The association had approached the apex court seeking to set aside the NCDRC’s order. “Complaints have already been registered, and in any case, the issue pertaining to registration and the bye-laws has got no relevancy, particularly in light of the submission made by the counsel for the appellant that affidavits have been filed by individual allottees. A pedantic and hyper-technical approach would cause damage to the very concept of consumerism,” the bench said. It noted that even after five years, the appellant association is unable to proceed and the cases have not progressed. “In such view of the matter, the impugned orders are set aside, and the appeals are allowed. Pending applications, if any, are disposed of. The national commission shall proceed to hear the matters on merits, expeditiously,” the bench said. PTI ABA ABA ANB ANB Monday, May 15, 2023 Source: theprint.in

The government wants Indian executives to be appointed as chief executive officers, chief operating officers, chief financial officers, and chief technical officers in Chinese brands’ Indian operations, according to media reports. The Union government has asked Chinese mobile phone manufacturers to induct Indian equity partners in their local operations, according to three executives who attended meetings at which the matter was conveyed, as per a report by the Economic Times. Indian executives should be appointed as chief executive officers, chief operating officers, chief financial officers, and chief technical officers, according to the three sources. Additionally, the government has directed them to appoint Indian contract manufacturers, expand local manufacturing down to the component level through joint ventures with Indian businesses, and hire local distributors. There are Chinese distributors for some of the companies, the report added. According to the executives, Chinese companies have also been directed not to evade taxes in India and to comply with the law. In recent meetings held by the ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY), top government officials discussed these issues with Chinese companies including Xiaomi, Oppo, Realme, and Vivo. Manufacturers’ lobby group ICEA represents manufacturers. The MeitY meetings came at a time when several Chinese smartphone manufacturers were under investigation for tax evasion and alleged illegal remittances worth thousands of crores. In addition to lobbying with the government, offline retailers have also sought to ensure that predatory online discounting does not occur. In addition to manufacturing operations, the government is seeking Indian equity partners for sales and marketing. There are currently wholly owned operations of Chinese smartphone companies in India. Realme’s global business president, Madhav Seth, said the government wants companies to take advantage of the local talent and ecosystem. “Such changes will enable higher value addition in the country and make businesses self-reliant,” as quoted in the report. He declined to share further details or confirm the meeting. Pankaj Mohindroo, chairman of ICEA, said the government wants to develop Indian skills and companies, and enlist local companies where possible. “For instance, it wants Indian distribution in place of foreign distributors,” said Mohindroo. “The minister (of state for electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar) is personally leading these and players in the industry are taking affirmative steps,” as quoted by ET. According to one of the executives cited, the government does not want the Chinese to have complete end-to-end control. “The Chinese companies should start sending India-made devices (for export), so that they become net foreign exchange positive.” He said the government also wants these companies to have a proper offline retail presence in place of their online-only strategy, the report added. India has grown its business by investing in local talent, developing a core of Indian managers and leaders, partners, and distributors. According to him, all local senior roles are held by Indians, and the company was one of the first to adopt the ‘Make in India’ initiative, locally producing an entire line of smartphones and televisions, including components, the report added. An industry executive said the government has asked Chinese firms to employ Indians for replaceable skills since electronics manufacturing creates a lot of jobs and enhances skillsets. Tuesday, June 13, 2023 Source: moneycontrol.com

Recently, Thane additional district consumer disputes redressal commission held that banks can recover the dues from a credit card customer from the customer’s fixed deposit (FD) held by the bank. The district commission dismissed the plea by the card-holder after the bank contested that: The bank had reached a settlement with the card-holder to clear the dues in three instalments. Since the card-holder failed to clear the dues as per the settlement terms, the bank issued a notice to him and then exercised its right to recover the dues from his FD with the bank. Not happy with this judgement, the card-holder preferred to file an appeal before the Maharashtra state consumer disputes redressal commission. His argument was that the dues on his credit card were for the period up to 2006 and could not be recovered from his account in 2014 because the claim by the bank had been time-barred under the Limitations Act. He alleged that the bank recovered the money from his FD without his knowledge or consent. The state commission made an important observation that the card-holder had neither disputed issuance of the credit card, nor the dues against the card. The commission further held that, though the bank was barred by the Limitation Act for initiating legal remedy, it did have the right to recover the dues. So, the state commission dismissed the appeal by the card-holder and upheld the order in favour of the bank. What we gather from this news report is that the card-holder did not dispute his dues, he agreed for amicable settlement with the bank; but, since he did not follow the terms and conditions of the settlement, the bank exercised its right of set-off and the provisions of the Limitations Act, 1963 were not a hurdle in the recovery of bank dues. The Madras High Court had given almost a similar ruling on 18 June 2016. Justice M Venugopal had dismissed a writ petition filed by a retired Tamil Nadu Electricity Board employee, who sought to restrain a nationalised bank from recovering the farm loan dues from his pension amount in the savings bank account. We need to know a little more about the credit card dues and their recovery, about the right of set-off and about certain limitations under some Acts. Here, let me clarify that I am not a lawyer. I will try to explain various provisions from the view of a banker and a common man and in a broader sense. We must first understand the working of a credit card. As the term denotes, credit card facilitates the card-holder to make various payments on credit. A bill is generated at the end of the period during which such purchases are made and contains all the transaction details informing the card-holder to pay the dues by a specific date. It also explains various terms and conditions. One must understand that the card-issuing bank is settling these payments out of its own funds, which is as good as a loan given to the card–holder, and the credit card limit is nothing but a loan limit. The dues should be paid on or before the due date to avoid attracting penalty and hefty interest. If the dues are high, they can be converted into equated monthly instalments (EMI) on certain terms and conditions, if the card-holder is not in a position to pay the dues in one go. In the above-mentioned case, the bank and the card-holder even reached an amicable settlement of paying the dues in three instalments. However, since the dues were not paid as agreed upon, the bank had to initiate its right of set-off. A right of set-off is a right to set off a debt due to someone against a debt due from the same person. In other words, this is combining and netting two accounts. As an example, suppose I owe Rs10,000 to Mr A and, at the same time, Mr A owes Rs9,000 to me. Here, I can exercise the right to set off my dues to Mr A to the extent of Rs9,000 and pay him the balance of Rs1,000. Indian Contract Act, 1872, has discussed the right of set-off in detail under various Sections with examples. Sections 59, 60 and 61 deal with appropriation of payment. Section 59 deals with payments where the debtor specifies application of payment to a specific debt. Section 60 says that if the debtor has not mentioned anything specific, the creditor will apply the payment as per his discretion to any lawful debt of his choice, which has actually fallen due and whether it is or is not barred by any law of in force. As per Section 61 where neither party makes any choice for appropriation, the payments will be applied in discharge of the debts in order of time and, again, whether or not, they are barred by the law in force. For example, assume A has lent to B Rs10,000 on 1.1.2023, Rs5,000 on 17.2.2023, Rs7,000 on 15.3.2023, and so on. First payment of, say, Rs9,000 by B will go to settle the first debt of 1.1.2023. Any next payment will first be adjusted against the balance Rs1,000 of the first debt and the remaining amount will be adjusted against the second debt. If instead of Rs9,000 B pays Rs12,000, then Rs10,000 will fully go to settle debt of 1.1.2023 and balance Rs2,000 will go to adjust debt of 17.2.2023; and so on. While loans are repaid by fixed instalments, cash credits and overdrafts are running accounts. So, to avoid any complications, banks obtain ‘Letter of Continuity’ or ‘Letter of Continuing Security’ so that the earliest debts get appropriated with every subsequent deposit. Apart from the above three Sections, Section 171 of the Indian Contract Act explains general lien, inter alia, of bankers. It says that “in the absence of any contract to the contrary, they can retain as a security for a general balance of account any goods bailed

Upholding orders passed by the fora below, the national consumer dispute redressal commission (NCDRC) asked New India Assurance Co Ltd to pay an insurance claim of Rs5 lakh to the family of the deceased holder of a debit-cum-ATM card from Axis Bank. In an order issued last week, the bench of Subhash Chandra (presiding member) says, “This Commission, in exercise of its revisional jurisdiction, is not required to re-assess and re-appreciate the evidence on record when the findings of the lower fora are concurrent on facts. It can interfere with the concurrent findings of the fora below only on the grounds that the findings are either perverse or that the fora below have acted without jurisdiction. Findings can be concluded to be perverse only when they are based on either evidence that have not been produced or based on conjecture or surmises i.e. evidence which are either not part of the record or when material evidence on record is not considered.” New India Assurance had filed a revision petition against orders passed by the district consumer disputes redressal forum at Panchkula and the Haryana state consumer disputes redressal commission. Manoj Kumar from Panchkula in Haryana had, on 7 October 2011, opened a savings bank account in Axis Bank. As per the scheme of Axis Bank, a debit-cum-ATM card was issued to Manoj Kumar. Axis Bank had a credit card package insurance policy with New India Assurance covering the risk of lost card liability and personal accident insurance, subject to eligibility criteria and exceptions of the policy. On 18 November 2011, Manoj Kumar died in a road accident. As his nominee, his father, Jagdish Chand, approached Axis Bank to pay the accident insurance claim. The Bank informed Jagdish Chand about the procedure to file a claim with the insurer. On 5 July 2012, he issued a legal notice to Axis Bank. However, New India Assurance alleged that Mr Chand and his wife, the nominees of Manoj Kumar, neither followed the procedure for the claim nor fulfilled the eligibility criteria but sent the documents to Axis Bank on 17 July 2012, which were merely forwarded to the insurer on 19 July 2012. Mr Chand and his wife made several futile efforts to have the claim released; however, Axis Bank did not honour the claim which amounted to unfair trade practice and deficiency in service and caused mental agony and harassment to them. They then filed a complaint before the district forum. Axis Bank contended that the formalities of filing all documents with the claim within 10 days of the date of death had not been done, and only documents were filed on 17 July 2012. It was stated that the insurance cover was an additional facility provided by the insurance company and there was no contract between or agreement between Mr Chand and his wife and Axis Bank, and the claim was to be settled by the insurance company. New India Assurance also denied the allegations and submitted in its written statement that Manoj Kumar had an accident insurance cover of Rs2 lakh with it. It denied that any transaction had been made with the debit card and, as the death was within 42 days of the opening of the account, he was not entitled to any personal accident insurance coverage benefit. New India Assurance also contended that though the death occurred on 18 November 2011, Mr Chand and his wife submitted the requisite papers to the insurance company after 243 days on 19 July 2012. Given the delay, New India Assurance says there was no liability on the insurer to pay the claim. The insurer also contended that the accident cover policy was applicable only if a successful payment transaction at any merchant outlet was made within 90 days before the incident, which had not been proven in the case of Manoj Kumar. In its order on 24 September 2013, the district forum allowed the complaint. It directed New India Assurance to pay the insurance amount of Rs5 lakh under the policy along with interest at 9% per annum from the due date till the actual payment. Axis Bank was directed to pay a lump sum compensation of Rs10,000 to Mr Chand and his wife for mental harassment and litigation cost. New India Assurance challenged the order before the state commission. While dismissing the appeal, the state commission pointed out that Mr Chand and his wife approached Axis Bank in December 2011 and submitted all relevant documents, such as the post-mortem report, death certificate, copy of the first information report (FIR) and other documents. They were advised to open a new account to transfer the balance in the account of Manoj Kumar, which was done on 20 December 2011. Axis Bank did not deny these facts. New India Assurance also did not deny providing insurance coverage of Rs5 lakh for accidental death. “Merely because some prescribed forms were not filled up, cannot be a ground to repudiate the claim, particularly when at least the initial formalities were completed by the complainants,” the state commission says in its order on 25 February 2014. New India Assurance then filed a revision petition before NCDRC. After hearing both the parties and carefully considering the material on record, Mr Chandra from NCDRC observed that New India Assurance has not denied that there was a personal accident insurance policy linked to the debit card issued by Axis Bank to the deceased son of Mr Chand and his wife. “However, it is their case that there was no privity of contract between the deceased card holder and New India Assurance. It is also argued that the claim of insurance was filed very late by the Bank and that the eligibility criteria of a valid transaction at a merchant outlet at least 90 days prior to the incident had not been met,” the bench noted. The counsel for Mr Chand and his wife submitted that the lower fora have arrived at concurrent findings which have attained finality

While allowing a home-buyer to retain money already received from a builder only because of the particular circumstances of the case, the Supreme Court reiterated that it disapproves of consumer forums awarding compound interest in these matters while exercising jurisdiction under the Consumer Protection Act. In an order last week, the bench of justice Dinesh Maheshwari and justice Sanjay Kumar says, “…even when we may not find fault with the stance of the respondent (homebuyer) in refusing to accept such an offer of a refund, particularly when she was desirous of the flats rather than money refund, the appellants (builder) cannot be saddled with any liability to pay compound interest over the amount offered by them beyond the date of their offer.” “The consumer fora have failed to consider that when the appellants had indeed offered to pay the money and sent the cheque (of Rs10.68 lakh) on 8 November 2005, it would be bringing about negative imbalance if such an effort on the part of the appellants was to be ignored altogether and compounding of interest was continued beyond 8 November 2005,” the bench says. The apex court observed that when the amount payable by the builder with reference to the principal and propositions is calculated, in its view, it does not exceed Rs2.48 crore together with accrued interest, which the home-buyer has already received. “Keeping in view the peculiar circumstances of this case, as an extraordinary measure, we propose to allow the respondent to retain the amount so received.” The case related to Anita Merchant, who in 1989 was a non-resident Indian (NRI) and booked three flats in a residential project Siddharth Shila Apartments, launched in Vaishali in Uttar Pradesh by Suneja Towers Pvt Ltd, headed by KL Suneja. She was allotted three flats, one costing Rs7.37 lakh and the other two at Rs7.35 lakh. As per the agreement, the total cost was payable by Ms Merchant in 12 instalments. However, she did not make the remaining payments after paying up to the sixth instalment. In October 2005, Ms Merchant issued a notice to Suneja Towers alleging that even after 16 years, the builder had kept the allottees waiting, despite receiving more than 60% of the total cost of the flats. She offered to pay the balance, provided that Suneja Towers clarified when the construction would be completed and she would get possession of her flats. In its response, Suneja Towers stated that it was a provisional allotment and no agreement was executed between the builder and the home-buyer, and since Ms Merchant defaulted in payment, the allotment has been cancelled. Suneja Towers offered to refund Rs10.68 lakh through cheque on 8 November 2005. Ms Merchant, however, returned the cheque and sent a rejoinder to the builder. Ms Merchant then filed a civil suit, which was dismissed for want of jurisdiction. She then filed a complaint before the district consumer forum. However, the district forum rejected her complaint, stating, “Ms Merchant tried to avail the services of Sujena Towers for commercial purpose… thus she does not fall within the category of consumer…” The home-buyer then approached the state commission. While setting aside the order passed by the district forum, the state commission held that the complaints were maintainable by law. It observed that Ms Merchant paid 60% of the total sale consideration. “However, possession of the flats booked by her was not handed over even after the expiry of the agreed period. Having opted for the construction-linked plan, the buyer was to make payment of the balance amount on delivery of possession and the allegation of her being in default was to be rejected because, on inspection of the site, construction was not found as per schedule.” The state commission found the case of Ms Merchant akin to that of Dr Manjeet Kaur Monga and when the units in question had already been sold, found it just and proper to direct the present appellants to refund the deposited amount together with compound interest at 14%pa (per annum) from the date of deposit. Suneja Towers challenged the decision before the national consumer disputes redressal commission (NCDRC). However, the appeal was dismissed. It says, “…in this case, the state commission had duly followed the dictum of the Supreme Court in Dr Monga’s case, and therefore, it cannot be said that the findings of the state commission are perverse or without jurisdiction. We found no illegality or infirmity in the impugned order. The present revision petitions have no merit, and the same are dismissed.” Suneja Towers then filed an appeal before the apex court. After hearing both sides, the bench observed that in her original complaint, Ms Merchant did not make any prayer for an award of compound interest; instead, her prayer had essentially been for directions to the appellants to deliver the flats and to award damages. She sought a simple interest at 18%pa. Citing the case of Dr Monga, the home-buyer for the first time claimed compound interest only before the state commission. The SC observed that the state commission did not elaborate much on the principles governing its powers and those governing awarding compound interest and rather considered the decision in Dr Monga’s case to be decisive of the matter. The apex court delved upon several judgements related to builders or developers and home-buyers and found, in most cases, the compensation for delayed delivery of possession and even in the cases where the builder was not delivering possession or not being taken by the purchaser for a valid reason, the award of compensation was restricted to the refund with a simple interest in the range of 6%pa to 9%pa. The bench stated that while awarding compensation and/or punitive damages, the concerned (consumer) forum can take all the relevant factors into account and award such amount as deemed fit and necessary but “ordinarily, in the matters of money refund, awarding of compound interest as a measure of punitive damages is not envisaged.” “A shortcut of awarding compound interest

The Intelligence Fusion & Strategic Operations (IFSO) unit of Delhi Police has arrested five cyber criminals for cheating 22 Max Insurance policy holders to the tune of Rs 2.38 crore, an official said. The official said that the gang, including two ex-employees of Max Insurance company, was allegedly involved in fraudulent withdrawal of unclaimed money of Max Life Insurance policy holders through bank accounts opened using forged documents. The accused have been identified as Prem Parkash (37), Chandan Jain (41), Sujeet Kumar Mishra (41), Rohit Kumar Aggarwal (28), and Vikas (30). Aggarwal, a former senior executive at Max Life Insurance Co., used his access to policyholders’ data to identify those with unclaimed surrendered and maturity amounts. He then shared these details with Mishra, another employee at the company, who passed them on to Jain. Jain, in turn, passed the information to Prakash, who opened bank accounts in the names of these policyholders. Meanwhile, Max Life Insurance said in a statement: “At Max Life Insurance, we believe in conducting business with the highest standards of ethics and integrity. We have zero tolerance for any unethical and fraudulent practices that compromise our customers’ interest and put Max Life’s reputation at risk. During our internal enquiry, we discovered that the implicated individuals had indulged in unethical practices. “We had taken strict action against employee involved and terminated their employment with immediate effect. The FIR was registered on complaint by Max Life only. We are extending the necessary support to aid ongoing investigations to ensure justice is met. We remain resolute in delivering the best services with necessary fraud control measures that our customers expect from us.” According to the police, the matter came to light after a case was registered under the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code at the Special Cell police station on the complaint of Max Life Insurance, wherein it was alleged that a sum of Rs 51 lakh related to surrendered/maturity amount of two Max policyholders – Ashutosh Joshi and Abdul Hye Choudhary – had been fraudulently received by unknown persons whose requests for refund were processed through their ex-employees. It was later discovered by the company that Choudhary had expired on March 13, 2018 and no such request was made on his behalf. “During inquiry, further documents and information shared by the company were examined and it was revealed that around Rs 2.38 crore pertaining to 37 policies of 22 Max Life Insurance policyholders got refunded fraudulently,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (IFSO), Prashant P. Gautam. The police then collected relevant account-related documents from the banks which revealed that several accounts were opened in Equitas Small Finance Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Bandhan Bank, Yes Bank, IDBI Bank and Jana Small Finance Bank in the names of policyholders. “Many of these accounts were opened digitally using the e-Aadhaar authentication process. It was also found that most of the money received in these accounts was transferred to accounts in the name of Rinku Sales, whose proprietor was Prem Prakash, having the address of Kabir Nagar, Rana Pratap Bagh, Delhi,” said the DCP. However, the said address was not traceable. “Prem Prakash was nabbed from near Burari and on the basis of his interrogation, five more persons were also arrested subsequently,” Gautam said. The officer said that Prakash lured his known persons and others, mostly poor people residing in jhuggis near Rana Pratap Bagh, and took them to the Aadhaar Centre to get their names/addresses changed to the names and addresses of the policyholders. “Vikas, who worked at the Aadhaar Centre, got these changes updated without collecting any relevant documents against Rs 1,000-1,500 per case. Many of these accounts were opened digitally using the e-Aadhaar authentication process,” the officer said. Aggarwal used to fill up the NEFT mandate forms using the signature of the policy holders and sent them along with scanned copies of cheque/passbooks through his official email ID to the data entry team of the company to initiate the refund process. “The refund amount was received in the bank accounts opened in the names of policyholders from where most of it was transferred to the bank accounts of Rinku Sales. From the account of Rinku Sales, the amount was withdrawn in cash and shared by the accused persons,” the officer said. The police have also recovered 39 mobile phones, 55 PAN cards, 33 Aadhaar cards, 32 voter ID cards, 46 debit cards, 73 cheque books/passbooks, six point of sale machines, and 10 rubber stamps. Disclaimer: Information, facts or opinions expressed in this news article are presented as sourced from IANS. As a source and news provider, IANS is responsible for accuracy, completeness, suitability and validity of any information in this article.

Expressing concern over increasing unclaimed deposits with banks, companies, mutual funds and insurers, finance minister (FM) Nirmala Sitharaman advised sector regulators to conduct a special drive to settle unclaimed deposits and claims. The value of unclaimed deposits in India is estimated to be over Rs90,000 crore, out of which the total unclaimed deposits transferred to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) by public sector banks (PSBs) was Rs35,012 crore as of February 2023. As reported by Moneylife, the total amount of unclaimed deposits was over Rs82,000 crore as of July 2021. Speaking at the 27th meeting of the financial stability and development council (FSDC), Ms Sitharaman says, “Regulators should conduct a special drive to facilitate the settlement of unclaimed deposits and claims in the financial sector across all segments, such as banking deposits, shares and dividends, mutual funds, and insurance.”  Unclaimed funds of the public get transferred to government-owned funds like RBI’s Depositor’s Education and Awareness Fund (DEAF), Investor’s Education and Protection Fund (IEPF) and Senior Citizen’s Welfare Fund (SCWF) on the grounds that the legal heirs or nominees did not claim them. A July 2021 report from Economic Times (ET) has estimated total unclaimed deposits at over Rs82,000 crore. It includes Rs26,497 crore in the provident fund (PF) accounts, Rs18,381 crore in inactive or dormant bank accounts, excluding Rs4,820 crore in matured fixed deposits (FDs), Rs17,880 crore in mutual funds, Rs15,167 crore in life insurance policies, and Rs4,100 crore in dividends. As per these figures, as of July 2021, total unclaimed deposits were over Rs82,000 crore. Considering a bank interest rate of 6%, these funds would have increased to around Rs92,000 crore in two years. Moneylife has repeatedly written about the difficulty in having bank accounts unfrozen and made operative again. The constant accretion to DEAF, despite stringent KYC requirements, is testimony to the callousness of a system that makes it difficult for funds to be transferred to rightful claimants. In the case of death, each bank makes up its own rules to transfer funds (‘Zindagi ke baad bhi’: COVID and the Worries about Transmission and Succession); some even arm-twist heirs to park it in fixed deposits with the same banks. Apart from the red-tape involved in obtaining succession certificates, some banks, in addition to succession certificates, demand two sureties from unrelated persons—which is a completely unreasonable demand. The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) mandates that all insurers transfer all policyholders’ money lying unclaimed for over 10 years to SCWF of the government set up in 2015. Unclaimed deposits under small savings, public provident fund (PPF), employee provident fund (EPF), all post-office savings accounts, senior citizens’ savings scheme accounts, Indira Vikas Patra and Kisan Vikas Patras are also transferred to the SCWF. Sucheta Dalal, managing editor of Moneylife and founder-trustee of Moneylife Foundation, had filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Supreme Court on making public on a centralised platform details of unclaimed money of investors and depositors taken by various regulators and which remains inaccessible to rightful legal heirs. In response to the petition, the RBI submitted that, during FY21-22, the depositors’ DEAF refunded Rs505.51 crore of 187,975 claimants. According to RBI, settling disputed claims by banks may involve adjudication of facts and appreciation of evidence which are normally subject matters of the court and could lead to avoidable litigation involving the banks, which is not in the interest of the banks and their depositors. Last month, RBI governor Shaktikanta Das announced the development of a common web portal to search for unclaimed deposits. At present, the depositors or beneficiaries of unclaimed bank deposits of 10 years or more have to go through the websites of multiple banks to locate such deposits, Mr Das said. “Now, in order to improve and widen the access of depositors and beneficiaries to information on such unclaimed deposits, it has been decided to develop a web portal to enable search across multiple banks for possible unclaimed deposits. This will help depositors and beneficiaries in getting back unclaimed deposits,” he added. (Read: RBI To Develop a Centralised Portal To Search Unclaimed Deposits) IEPF, which holds monies from the unclaimed dividend account that remains unpaid or unclaimed for seven years, offers a search facility on its website, operated under the ministry of corporate affairs (MCA-21). Further, IEPF has relaxed certain requirements, including advanced receipt, succession certificate or probate of a will (relaxed for a claim of Rs5 lakh for physical and demat shares). It also allowed self-attestation by the claimant instead of notarised documents while relaxing the requirement of affidavits and surety. As of 31 January 2023, IEPF processed 74,396 claims and transferred dividends worth Rs35.18 crore to claimants. It also transferred 2.29mn (million) shares to the claimants. Last month, terming the issue of unclaimed deposits as ‘very large’, the apex court allowed senior counsel Prashant Bhushan to file a combined rejoinder in the PIL. During the hearing, Justice PS Narasimha mentioned that “This issue is very large. It is being considered in detail.” The PIL urges developing a centralised online database under the control of RBI that will provide information about the deceased account holder, including such details as the name, address and last date of transaction by the deceased account holder. Further, it should be mandatory for banks to inform RBI about the inoperative or dormant bank accounts, and this exercise should be repeated after an interval of nine to 12 months. Source: Timesofindia.com

Meta-owned WhatsApp on Thursday said it has taken stern action on the growing menace of International scam calls in India, after the government took cognisance of the issue and announced to send a notice to the platform over the issue. The platform, which has over 500 million users in the country, said it has ramped up its artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) systems to bring down such incidents significantly. “Our new enforcement will reduce the current calling rate by at least 50 per cent and we expect to be able to control the current incidence effectively. We will continue to work relentlessly towards ensuring a safe experience for our users,” a company spokesperson said in a statement. Earlier in the day, Minister of State for Electronics and IT, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, said that the IT Ministry will send a notice to WhatsApp on the issue of spam calls from unknown international numbers, stressing that social media platforms are responsible for ensuring the safety and trust of users. These spam calls with international numbers, mostly from African and Southeast Asian countries, along with fake messages from unknown users, flooded WhatsApp users in India. The spam calls showed country codes of Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Ethiopia, among others. Most of these calls started with +251 (Ethiopia), +62 (Indonesia), +254 (Kenya), +84 (Vietnam) and other countries. WhatsApp said that international scam calls are a new way that bad actors have recently adopted. By giving a missed call, they lead curious users to call or message back only to get scammed. “We continue to provide several safety tools within WhatsApp like Block and Report, consistently build user safety education and awareness, as well as, proactively weed out bad-actors from our platform. However, bad actors find different ways to scam users,” the company spokesperson noted. Disclaimer: Information, facts or opinions expressed in this news article are presented as sourced from IANS. As a source and news provider, IANS is responsible for accuracy, completeness, suitability and validity of any information in this article.