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LEGAL RESOURCE CENTREMoneylife Foundation's Legal Resource Information Centre's (LRIC) main objective is to provide information, advice and preliminary guidance to persons needing legal help or planning legal action in 10 defined areas.





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You can seek help and guidance in following 10 areas such as CHS, property-related issues, Complaints to regulators, Consumer complaints, IT Act and civil liberties, Filing PILs, Whistleblowers, Sexual harassment case, Wills & nominations, RTI and Basic legal research.
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Disclaimer: The guidance provided on this Helpline is on the sole basis of the facts provided by the questioner and does not amount to formal legal advice in any form whatsoever.
OUR EXPERTS

Shirish Shanbhag

Shirish Shanbhag has an MSc in Organic Chemistry, Diploma in Higher Education, a Diploma in a French and has completed his LL.B. in first class, in 2021. Before his retirement, he was a junior college teacher at Patkar College from July 1980 to May 2012, where he taught theoretical and practical chemistry. Post retirement in 2012, he started providing guidance and counseling to people on several issues, with a specific focus on co-operative housing society related matters. Adv Shanbhag has a kee

AV Shenoy

AV Shenoy hold degrees in both Mechanical and Electrical Engineering from VJTI, University of Bombay and a Post Graduate Diploma in Industrial Management from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies. Worked as a Design Engineer in Electrical Business Group of Larsen & Toubro Ltd. at Powai from October 1969 to September 2001 and retired as Dy. General Manager. Also worked as a Facilitator/Trainer for implementation of Total Quality Management (TQM) and ISO 9000 in the organization. Since r

Abhay Datar

Abhay Datar is a consumer activist. After working at Bank of Baroda for about 29 years, he retired as IT Manager. After retirement, Mr Datar joined Consumer Guidance Cell of Mumbai Grahak Panchayat (MGP) in 2008 and solved many cases related to banking including online fraudulent transactions, misuse of credit cards and ATM cards. Also handled cases related with mobile banking frauds and mediclaim. He was a Member of the Managing Committee of MGP till March 2021.

Shailesh Gandhi

Shailesh Gandhi is a former Central Information Commissioner for the Right to Information Act. He is a successful RTI activist and a regular speaker at Moneylife Foundation.

Dr Rajendra Ganatra

Dr Rajendra M Ganatra, was a banker for two decades and is now a registered Insolvency Resolution Professional, restructuring consultant and visiting faculty for MBA. He has more three decades of experience in project finance, asset reconstruction and financial restructuring. He is a Registered Insolvency Professional and has been the former MD & CEO of India SME Asset Reconstruction Co. Limited

Samir Zaveri

An extraordinary activist who has dedicated his life to the cause of railways, with a mission to help every rail commuter and accident victims, and improve Railway safety.

Yogesh Sapkale

Yogesh Sapkale is Deputy Editor of Moneylife and writes on legal, RTI, and consumer issues

Sucheta Dalal

Trustee - Moneylife Foundation

Moneylife Foundation

I am a personal loan customer of an nbfc. In March, a staff member of nbfc called my registered mobile number and fraudulently collected my OTP over the phone. The staff member deliberately misled me by claiming that the OTP was required for removing an existing auto debit mandate from my account. Trusting the caller as an official representative of nbfc I shared the OTP on that call in good faith.
THE FRAUD
The moment I shared the OTP, nbfc secretly registered an unauthorized NACH auto debit mandate on applicant bank before it's on guarantor bank account without my free, informed or digital consent. Subsequently, bounce charges ranging between ?500 to ?1000 were illegally debited from my bank account. I wish to clearly state that:
I never visited any secure digital platform or authorized application
I never entered the OTP myself on any official system
I never digitally signed or authorized any mandate
I never gave any written or informed consent for any auto debit registration
The entire mandate was registered solely on the basis of an OTP fraudulently collected over a phone call
This constitutes WRONG CONSENT obtained through deliberate deception and misrepresentation — which is not valid consent under any law or RBI regulation.

THE INSTITUTIONAL COVER-UP
What makes this case far more serious than a simple staff error is the deliberate cover-up by nbfc management. After the fraud, I contacted nbfc and formally requested the following information:
Full name of the staff member who called me
Official phone number used to make the call
Exact date and time of the call
Internal call records related to my account
Nbfc manager EXPLICITLY REFUSED to provide any of this information.
I have a clear AUDIO RECORDING of this manager's refusal — capturing their deliberate unwillingness to disclose the staff member's identity and call details. This audio recording proves beyond doubt that:
Nbfc is fully aware of the fraud committed by their staff and diverting complaints with due emis
They are deliberately concealing the identity of the staff member involved
This is not an isolated individual mistake but a calculated institutional cover-up at managerial level
Nbfc is actively obstructing legitimate grievance redressal
The concealment itself is a separate and serious violation of RBI Fair Practices Code
All internal call records related to this fraud are in possession nbfc and they are deliberately withholding them.
 Regulators RBI, SEBI etc
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Our Experts

Shirish Shanbhag Shirish Shanbhag has an MSc in Organic Chemistry, Diploma in Higher Education, a Diploma in a French and has completed his LL.B. in first class, in 2021. Before his retirement, he was a junior college teacher at Patkar College from July 1980 to May 2012, where he taught theoretical and practical chemistry. Post retirement in 2012, he started providing guidance and counseling to people on several issues, with a specific focus on co-operative housing society related matters. Adv Shanbhag has a kee

AV Shenoy AV Shenoy hold degrees in both Mechanical and Electrical Engineering from VJTI, University of Bombay and a Post Graduate Diploma in Industrial Management from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies. Worked as a Design Engineer in Electrical Business Group of Larsen & Toubro Ltd. at Powai from October 1969 to September 2001 and retired as Dy. General Manager. Also worked as a Facilitator/Trainer for implementation of Total Quality Management (TQM) and ISO 9000 in the organization. Since r

Abhay Datar Abhay Datar is a consumer activist. After working at Bank of Baroda for about 29 years, he retired as IT Manager. After retirement, Mr Datar joined Consumer Guidance Cell of Mumbai Grahak Panchayat (MGP) in 2008 and solved many cases related to banking including online fraudulent transactions, misuse of credit cards and ATM cards. Also handled cases related with mobile banking frauds and mediclaim. He was a Member of the Managing Committee of MGP till March 2021.

Shailesh Gandhi Shailesh Gandhi is a former Central Information Commissioner for the Right to Information Act. He is a successful RTI activist and a regular speaker at Moneylife Foundation.

Dr Rajendra Ganatra Dr Rajendra M Ganatra, was a banker for two decades and is now a registered Insolvency Resolution Professional, restructuring consultant and visiting faculty for MBA. He has more three decades of experience in project finance, asset reconstruction and financial restructuring. He is a Registered Insolvency Professional and has been the former MD & CEO of India SME Asset Reconstruction Co. Limited

Samir Zaveri An extraordinary activist who has dedicated his life to the cause of railways, with a mission to help every rail commuter and accident victims, and improve Railway safety.

Yogesh Sapkale Yogesh Sapkale is Deputy Editor of Moneylife and writes on legal, RTI, and consumer issues

Sucheta Dalal Trustee - Moneylife Foundation

Moneylife Foundation

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