Human rights violations by the Indian corporate sector – Case of ICICI bank

ICICI bank is becoming a sort of menace in recent times. They seem to be violating all codes of conduct and established business practices in their pursuit of growth and profit. What is worse is that they have begun to violate basic human rights of many of those who avail of its services. Today’s newspaper (Times of India, Mumbai, Nov 21, 2007, p.13) reports that ICICI bank was fined Rs.1,00,000 by the district consumer disputes redressal forum for sending loan recovery agents to the house of a lady in Pune at night, to seize her car, and for not following legal procedures. In another case, media reported about the bank’s agents in Goa accosting and beating up a man in broad daylight before snatching his car keys. CNN IBN also showed an entire episode of the ICICI bank’s misconduct in loan recovery and the involvement of its officials in a huge car loan recovery racket run in Goa. Earlier the Delhi state consumer disputes redressal commission had levied a whooping Rs.50,00,000 fine on ICICI bank for sending goons to take away a loaned car from a person who had defaulted on paying his loan instalments. The goons sent by the bank had taken the car after beating up the customer’s friend (who happened to be in the car) with iron rods, leading to serious injuries on his skull and other parts of the body. They also asked the bank to pay Rs.5,00,000 to the customer. Newspapers have reported widely about the violation of human rights by the bank, but the officials of the bank remain scot-free and continue to indulge in more violations. The Pune case is only an indictor of that. The Delhi Consumer Commission held the ICICI Bank guilty of “unfair trade practice,” and termed the miscreants as a boorish and a brutal lout, who care a fig for legal and judicial authorities, including the Supreme Court. Its President Justice J D Kapoor said “No civilised society governed by rule of law can brook such kind of conduct,” and added that the violent methods adopted by the recovery agents were serious violation of “human rights”.

Today, privatisation and public-private partnerships are touted as the big mantras of achieving basic human rights and services such as health and education for its citizens. ICICI bank’s practices are only indicative of the practices that an unregulated private sector can indulge in, to maximise their profits, even at the cost of safety of human lives. Relying on the unregulated private sector to achieve human rights will be like entrusting the wolves to take care of the lambs. Let the ICICI bank’s practices be a reminder of this!!!