Banks with over 10 branches to have ombudsman: RBI
Mumbai, Sep 3 : The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday asked all scheduled commercial banks with more than 10 branches to appoint an Internal Ombudsman (IO). It, however, excluded Regional Rural Banks (RRB) from the requirement.
"The IO shall examine customer complaints which are in the nature of deficiency in service on the part of the bank, that are partly or wholly rejected by the bank," the RBI said in a release introducing the Internal Ombudsman Scheme, 2018.
The IO mechanism was set up with a view to strengthening the internal grievance redress system of banks and to ensure that the complaints of the customers are redressed at the level of the bank itself, the apex bank said.
With an IO, the redress will be done by an authority placed at the highest level of bank's grievance redressal mechanism. It will minimize the need for the customers to approach other fora for redressal, the RBI said.
As a part of this customer-centric approach, the banking regulator issued revised directions in the form of 'Internal Ombudsman Scheme, 2018' to enhance the independence of the IO and to strengthen the monitoring system.
The IO Scheme will cover appointment, tenure, roles and responsibilities, procedural guidelines and oversight mechanism for the IO, among other things. Its execution will be monitored by the bank's internal audit mechanism apart from regulatory oversight by RBI.
The RBI had, in May 2015, advised all public sector and select private and foreign banks to appoint IOs as an independent authority to review complaints that were partially or wholly rejected by the respective banks.
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MP: Principal suspended after video shows peon evaluating answer sheets
Narmadapuram (MP), Apr 8 (PTI): The principal of a government college in Narmadapuram district and a professor were suspended after a viral video purportedly showed a peon evaluating students' answer sheets.
Sources said that aggrieved students had contacted local MLA Thakurdas Nagvanshi, who then lodged a complaint with the authorities.
Rakesh Verma, the principal of Pipariya-based Bhagat Singh Government College, claimed that he and Professor Ramgulam Patel were suspended on April 4.
Verma stated that the answer sheet evaluation work had been assigned to a guest teacher, who then handed it over to a peon via a book lifter posted in the college.
A complaint was raised in January this year after the video clip surfaced on social media, Verma added.
He further claimed that Professor Patel had been appointed as the nodal officer for the evaluation work by Raja Shankar Shah University, Chhindwara.
"I was implicated," Verma claimed while sharing a letter related to Patel's appointment as nodal officer of the evaluation work, issued last August.
Verma mentioned that he has written to the Higher Education Department, requesting the revocation of his suspension.
A shocking case of negligence has come to light from Shaheed Bhagat Singh Government PG College in Pipariya, Madhya Pradesh. A video from January 2025 showed a peon, Pannalal Patharia, checking exam answer sheets—work that should have been done by qualified professors.
— The Logical Indian (@LogicalIndians) April 8, 2025
👉🏼 He was… pic.twitter.com/0w4TzU1yQz
