Aretha Legal is pleased to announce a favourable order secured before the Hon’ble Supreme Court concerning the H.D.F.C. Bank Ltd.

The matter was argued by Mr. Kunal Tandon , Senior Advocate, briefed by the disputes team led by Ms. Aanchal Tandon , Senior Partner, along with Ms. Niti jain , Principal Associate, Mr. Tarun Mehta and Mr. Nitai Agarwal on behalf of H.D.F.C. Bank.

The case revolves around the Written Statement filed by the Appellant-Bank which was rejected by the Hon’ble National Commission on the ground being barred by limitation. Aggrieved by the said order, Civil Appeal was filed by the Appellant Bank.

The Hon’ble Apex Court accepted the Appellant’s contention that the Hon’ble National Commission had failed to take note of a crucial aspect, namely, that service of a mere notice, without being accompanied by a copy of the consumer complaint, cannot constitute proper and adequate service so as to trigger the statutory period of filing the Written Statement. The Hon’ble Court, while reiterating the principles laid down in New India Assurance Co. Ltd. v. Hilli Multipurpose Cold Storage Pvt. Ltd., (2020) 5 SCC 757, held that the benefit of doubt must go to the Appellant where there is ambiguity as to whether the consumer complaint was, in fact, served along with the notice upon the Bank.

Accordingly, the Hon’ble Court held that the period of limitation for filing the Written Statement would commence only upon proper service of the consumer complaint along with the notice, and not merely from the date of service of the notice itself.

The appeal was thus allowed and the impugned order passed by Hon’ble National Commission was set aside.