- (1.)Through this application, opposite parties Indian Bank and its functionaries have prayed for dismissal of the complaint on the ground that this Commission has no jurisdiction to entertain and try the present complaint.
(2.)The facts and circumstances which led to the filing of the present application are that Shri Bhagwanji D. Patel and Smt. Indira B. Patel, ordinarily residents of Leicester, UK have filed the complaint before this Commission alleging deficiency in service on the part of the opposite party-bank and its functionaries in regard to the sum of 1,96,749.24 Great Britain Pound deposited by them with the opposite party-bank in Foreign Currencies Fixed Deposit known as Foreign Currencies Non Resident (Bank) account (in short, ' FCNR (B) account'). For conducting the transactions, they had appointed Shri Harish D. Patel as their attorney vide Power of Attorney dated 08.10.94. According to the complainant, they were entitled to receive a total sum of 211745.85 GB Pound on the date of maturity on 06.03.2005 of FCNR (B) account. It is alleged that Attorney of the complainant received the FCNR (B) account receipt no. 409337 dated 17.03.2003 and on receipt of the same, he noted that the said receipt tend to cover another FCNR (B) account receipt for US$ 37286.63 in favour of certain Gunvant Rasiklal Ganatra and Pushpa Gunvant Ganatra and so he immediately contacted financial consultant Shri S. Ramasubramanian, who on inquiry informed Mr. Patel that the said FCNR (B) account receipt had been mistakenly sent to him and requested him to send it to one Umesh, nephew of Shri Ganatra. Accordingly D. Patel forwarded the FCNR (B) account receipt to Mr. Umesh. However, during September 2004 Shri S. Ramasubramanian contacted Shri Harish D. Patel and requested for a Xerox copy of FCNR (B) account receipt issued in favour of the complainants for verification as Shri Ganatra wanted to pre close his above referred FCNR (B) account prematurely and one of the receipt sent by him was found to be bogus. Becoming suspicious Shri Harish D. Patel and Shri S. Ramasubramanian immediately contacted Shri Sudhakar Reddy, the outgoing manager and Shri Chandra Reddy, incoming manager of the respondent-bank at Kondareddipalla Branch, Chittor on 01.10.2004 and on enquiry they were informed that FCNR (B) account receipt no. 409337 forwarded by speed post to Harish D. Patel was bogus and fictitious. On verification of the records maintained at the bank, they came to know that though the amount of GB Pound 1,96,749.24 was received by the OPs, the said amount had been split up into two parts and amount i. e. , GB Pound 49200 was kept in FCNR (B) account (for which no FCNR (B) account receipt had been sent either to the complainants or their power of Attorney) and the remaining money of GB Pound 1,47,549.24 was converted into Indian Rupee without any valid or proper authorization from the complainants and transferred to Non-Resident (External) rupee account known as NRE rupee account which had a credit balance of Rs. 9731.60 only. it was also revealed that OP No. 3 had opened the NRE rupee account on the basis of a forged form allegedly signed by Harish D. Patel but the bank took a stand that they never received FCNR (B) account opening form sent by Harish D. Patel by courier, one signed by him as power of attorney and another signed by complainant themselves vide courier receipts Nos. 1507222 dated. 08.03.2003 and 1525405 dated 09.04.2003 and also the fax message sent by Harish D Patel on 07.03.2003. However, the bank admitted to have received the FCNR (B) account opening form duly signed by Ganatra sent on 09.04.2003 which was sent in the same consignment C. N. No. 1525405.
(3.)According to the complainants, the opposite party-bank and its functionaries have committed the following illegalities which amounts to deficiency in service:
"1. The splitting up of the money received by the respondent and depositing a small portion only in the FCNR (B) account and covering major portion of the money into rupee and depositing the same in NRE rupee account is without permission or authorization from either the complainants or their power of attorney.

2. At no point of time either the complainants or their power of attorney received any statement/pass-book for operation of the NRE rupee account.

3. Thirdly, the account opening form, allegedly signed by the power of attorney which is stated to have been used for opening the NRE account is nothing but a rank forgery. This is evident as the account opening forms signed by the power of attorney and the complainants were filled up by hand by the power of attorney and the form allegedly used by the Bank was typed form.