Nationalized bank fined for losing crucial documents

People take loans for buying houses, cars etc, and the bank claims the ownership of the property till the amount is paid. What happens if the bank loses crucial documents that was submitted at the time of the procurement of the loan? Recently such an incident happened where a nationalized bank lost the sale deed of the apartment of Janardhan B Kotian. Kotian got justice in NCDRC, National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, when the state consumer commission refused to hear him out.
Kotian wanted to get a loan for a apartment and he applied in the Bank of Baroda. Since he was an employee there, the bank agreed to give him a housing loan of amount two lakhs and twenty five thousand rupees. In addition to that, he got a loan amount of rupees eighty five thousand in HDFC bank. He had to give the sale deed of the apartment and the original possession letter for him to get the loan; the same policy is applied in other banks too. The Bank of Baroda has given him the receipt for the two vital documents.
In November 2000, Kotian wanted to sell his apartment, he pre-closed his loan by paying the entire loan amount to the bank. When Kotian asked for his document, the bank was unable to trace them. The bank had asked his to go ahead with the sales and no problem would come forth but the potential buyer was not interested in a place with no documents. To pay the advance back to the potential buyer, Kotian had to borrow money from a financier with 2% interest.
Kotian filed a criminal complaint against the bank official claiming physical and mental harassment. He also took the matter to the consumer commission where he was shot down and the bank asked to procure a duplicate copy of the agreement. Kotian took the issue to the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) where they were in favor of Kotian. The commission after hearing the case said that the state commission had interpreted the issue in the wrong way.
Kotian had proof that the bank had lost the crucial documents. He had all the necessary documents against the bank. The bank was under a legal obligation to safeguard the documents and by failing to do so, it has to pay compensation. The commission ordered the Bank to pay a sum of 25,000 rupees and the commission also directed the bank to take responsibility for its mistake by issuing a certificate to Kotian. The certificate should state that the documents were misplaced by the bank and the bank will be solely responsible if any artificial documents come up in the future.
These kinds of incidents happen everywhere, banks and other powerful organization use their power to cheat consumers. So take issues in your hand and fight for your justice. It will definitely be worth it.