Consumer Protection Act, 1986 – Rate of interest to be charged on home loan – Home buyer filed loan application, opting an adjustable rate of interest – Manager of the Bank assured that the rate of interest would be charged based on the Prime Lending Rate of RBI – Loan amount disbursed, and thereafter, the rate of interest was revised from 7.25% pa to 8.25% pa despite RBI not having changed the Prime Lending Rate and was further increased to 10.5% pa though no change made by RBI – Consumer complaint – National Consumer held that home buyer was bound by the terms and conditions of the agreement while the bank was bound by various instructions of RBI at the time of signing the agreement – Interference with:
Held: Respondent No.1 being a NBFC and as a corporate body would be bound by its policies and procedures with regard to lending and recovery – Applicability of the rate of interest to be charged is a policy matter and cannot be case-specific unless the individual agreement entered into between the parties indicate otherwise – When the parties have signed the agreement, the terms agreed therein would bind the parties and the email exchanged between the parties cannot override the policy decisions of the institution – Having executed the agreement; having agreed to the terms and conditions; having received the loan amount, the appellant-home buyer cannot raise any objection for the first time when the rate of interest was increased after having acquiesced by signing the agreement – Further, the appellant having repaid the loan amount with interest as per the terms of agreement cannot make out a grievance in hindsight and seek refund of the amount paid – In view thereof, no error has been committed so as to call for interference. [Para 10 – 16]
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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