SBI to pay Rs 1 lakh for disputed land sale

A district consumer forum has directed State Bank of India to pay a little over Rs one lakh to a consumer for selling him a disputed land through auction without verifying the authenticity of the documents and actual ownership rights of the property. In his complaint, N Kiran Kumar, stated that he had purchased two plots, each measuring 83.6 square metres at Pedda Amberpet, Ranga Reddy district, in an open auction organised by SBI and paid Rs 6.89 lakh for the same. He also paid a registration fee of Rs 41,350 after the SBI executed a sale certificate and registered the properties on July 3, 2013. Few months after the handover, Kumar stated that he was left stumped when he approached a bank for a house loan and was informed that the property was not genuine and had no clear title. While SBI cancelled the registration and refunded his money, after he brought the issue to the officials’ notice, he approached the forum for losing the registration fee, due to the carelessness of the bank. The SBI representatives, in their submission, stated that the previous owner of the land registered the property after availing a loan from their bank, they insisted that the same was not valid as it was executed after the property was mortgaged.