I won the case!

Sorry that I was not posting for a long time.  The reason is this:  ICICI Bank was relying more on my posts than on their lawyers to get their updates!  Well anyway the status is now that I have won the case.  More important than the money is the fact that the judiciary has recognized that the actions of the bank were very inappropriate.  The judgement has a bigger ramification in the sense that anyone across the country can quote this judgement in their fight against ICICI.  The order can be seen here:

http://164.100.72.12/ncdrcrep/judgement/1956410111815593260CC%20434%20of%202009.htm

Though I did not have a credit card in the first place, I fought the case on the basis that I have cleared the dues.  I did not need a lawyer.  ICICI Bank's lawyers are just ripping ICICI off.  They never appeared in court and the one and half documents they filed was done through an office boy.  Imagine that!  No wonder ICICI does not know what is happening!  The sentence to look out for in the order is this:

"A banking organization  like opposite party   cannot  wash off   its hand by simply saying that  the mistake crept in  only due to system error  that too after three years of the closing the credit card account and shiphone the money of the complainant  even without informing to him from his saving bank account. Hence this forum come to the conclusion  that the act of the opposite parties  in  debiting the sum of Rs. 47.484.51/- from the SB account of the complainant , three years subsequent to the closure of the credit card account surely amount to negligence  and  deficiency  in service  on the part of the opposite parties."

(Please ignore the english)  It means that whenever and wherever the bank wants to debit money from savings accounts, it has to first inform the account holder.  This will automatically deter the bank from debiting the account because then the account holder will simply withdraw the money.  Please spread this message to as many of your friends as possible.

BTW I have got the money and spent it too!

Update: 02/11/2009

Finally!  I have got the case number (434/2009) from the consumer court and the first hearing is on November 26, 2009.  I am moving the High Court for defamation but that is a much more longer process with the notice going out only next week and thereafter about 3-4 weeks to file the suit.

Update: 29/10/2009

Finally the case number will be given tomorrow in the consumer court and the notices will be despatched on Monday.  I am also filing a defamation suit in the High Court.  The notice is being sent on Monday.

Update: 14/10/2009

The judge has returned after a long leave and just today signed the papers.  The case number hence is being given next week - but essentially the case has been accepted and now it is going to be a long battle.

Update: 07/10/2009

The papers have been given submitted in the Consumer Court today.  They have said they will require a week to verify and give the case number, which effectively means that the case will start next week.

No development yet

I have no updates to give as I am waiting for the time to get over to file the cases with the consumer court.

Update: 16/09/2009

I  have no updates to give today as I guess I have to bid time for the 21 days to pass.  I also was looking at the various comments and generally all of them were on the possible next steps.  So here I am outlining the various possibilities:
Going to RBI: The tricky thing about going to the RBI (filing a complaint with the ombudsman) is that you can file a complaint only if you not done so in any civil court (as given on their website).  But it does not state if you can got to a civil court after you have filed a complaint with the ombudsman nor it specifically says anthing about a 'consumer court'.  Also the ombudsman can be approached only after 30 days (like the 21 days for a consumer court).  So I did the next best thing - that is write to the Dy. Governor of RBI as a letter instead of a complaint.  I am not aware of what happened on that front as I have got no feedback.  But I guess the RBI wont take it so lightly and something must be happening in the background.  Aslo since it does not specify anything about 'consumer court' I think I will file a case with the ombudsman after filing it with consumer court and before filing a defamation suit / other civil suits in the civil court.
Civil Courts: The decision is to whether to file a private petition or a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) - the advantage with PIL is that it wont clash with the RBI rule and also since it is in the interest of the public the case will be more readily accepted.  The flip side is that if the Judge feels prima facie it is not 'serious' enough, it wont be even entertained.  Of course there is nothing stopping from then filing a private petition.  But the other thought is if a consumer court takes say 6 months to give a judgement and then a PIL is filed, it will be much more potent.
Consumer Court: I am just biding time and as soon as the waiting period is over it is going to be filed.  And the relief going to be asked will be so unique and so selfless that the court will have no other option but just to bargain on the specificities.
Press: I guess the press should be leveraged once the cases are filed so that they too have more interest in the proceedings.