After cheque bounce money siphoned by bank w/o notice. What can i do?

As to the fact that your cheque bounced, the legal recourse for the bank is to send you a notice within 30 days and thereafter if you don’t pay, then file a criminal complaint against you. The procedure adopted by the bank is completely illegal.

You can approach the Banking Ombudsman under the Banking Ombudsman Scheme, 2006. This is a senior official appointed by the Reserve Bank of India to redress customer complaints against deficiency in banking services, as per its scheme introduced in 1995. All scheduled commercial banks, regional rural banks and scheduled primary cooperative banks are covered under the scheme. The addresses and contact details of Banking Ombudsman are available on the RBI website.

The ombudsman tries to effect a legally binding settlement between both the parties within a month. However, if a settlement is not possible, it will pass an award after allowing both the parties to present their cases to him.

The type of grievances handled by the Banking Ombudsman include grievances related to plastic money, unfair banking practices, levying of service charges without prior intimation, transactions on the Internet banking platform, and the like. For a complete list of the types of complaints you can take up under this scheme, visit www.rbi.org.in/scripts/FAQView.aspx?Id=24

You have to file the complaint at the office of the ombudsman under whose jurisdiction your bank branch is located. You can put it down on a plain paper, send an e-mail, or fill the complaint form on the RBI website. There are no charges for filing a complaint. The ombudsman can reject a customer's complaint if he has not approached his bank for grievance redressal first, or if the subject is pending for disposal, or has already been dealt with at any other forum, such as a court of law or consumer court. Also, the complaint will not be considered if more than one year has passed since the customer has heard from the bank, or 13 months since the date of representation to the bank.

If you are not happy with the settlement offered by the ombudsman, you can file an appeal before the appellate authority within 30 days. The appellate authority in this case is the deputy governor of the RBI.

Alternatively, you can approach consumer redressal forums, which take up bank-related complaints, or even the courts.