The apex consumer commission has directed the Indian postal service to pay Rs 24.8 lakh to two brothers towards the maturity value of the small-savings scheme certificates bought for them by their late father but were lost.
In two separate but common orders, the National Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission (NCDRC) said that since there were no claimants for the amount, the post office could not have appropriated the entire amount forever due to non-submission of the certificates.
NCDRC rejected the appeal of the post office against the decisions of the Odisha State Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission and a district forum which had directed payment of the amounts to the two brothers — Jambu Kumar Jain and Chhagan Lal Jain, sons of Late Rama Chandra Jain.
The postal department was not paying the maturity value without submission of the certificates.According to the brothers’ plea in the State commission and the district forum, their father had purchased 692 Indira Vikas Patras (IVP) in the name of his sons, daughters and others from the Head Post Office, Bolangir.
Out of the 692, 88 IVPs were in favour of Jambu Kumar whereas 160 were in favour of Chhagan Lal, the plea had said and added that all of the 692 IVPs were lost and it was reported to the local police station in June, 2001.