Sir,
I am the holder of the ICICI Bank account number ********8866 with their Karunagapally branch in Kerala. I had a linked demat account (IN302********303) which was operational till mid 2010 when I had sold all my holdings on 18-06-2010. There upon I had visited the branch of ICICI Direct at Trivandrum and given a written request for closure of the demat account. I was not told at any point then that the request for closure of trading account only is done by the ICICI Direct office and that a seperate request needs to be given at the bank to close the demat account. The demat account has ever since been unused. I don't remember having received any letter confirming the closure of the trading account or demat account.
The ICICI Bank has after a long 29 months of utter silence slapped a lien on my account number ********8866 for Rs.1103 being the annual charges for the interim period. There was no correspondence from the bank demanding the payment of annual charges. I was also not intimated in advance about the lien which was to be marked on my account. The lien was marked on 17th November 2012. I had maintained an amount of Rs.1957 for paying the mobile bill of BSNL1 which is given an auto-debit mandate. When I had logged into the internet banking on 22nd November, I saw that the mobile bill was not debited and that there is a difference of Rs.1103 between the available balance and total available balance. When I called up the ICICI Bank customer care number ********00, I was told by the officer that I needed to give a closure request for the demat account seperately at the ICICI Bank and this lien pertain to the annual charges unpaid for last 2-3 years. On asking why I was not intimated, I was told that they didn't have my email ID to which only they send such notices. I remember having provided the email ID at the time of opening the demat account (which can be checked in the accout opening form). The basic formalities of intimating the customer before marking a lien has not been followed here.
I would like to know from you as to what are the formalities that need to be followed as per law or RBI guidelines before marking a lien on an account. What are the prospects before me going to the Banking Ombudsman or the consumer court seeking action against the bank and seeking damages for the inconvenience caused.
Requesting your kind reply in this regard.
Regards
Gopikrishna Pillai