Blind man wins cheque book

A blind Indian man is celebrating after winning a legal battle with his bank to be allowed to use a cheque book.

Prasanna Kumar Pincha went to court after trying to open an account at the Industrial Development Bank of India.

He argued it was discriminatory to make him bear the risk of signature fraud, and the court in Assam state agreed.

Unless the bank appeals, experts say the ruling could become a legal precedent giving India's nearly 10 million blind people similar rights.

Mr Pincha, who works for Action Aid India, went to the high court in the Assamese capital, Guwahati, after the IDBI bank treated him differently from other colleagues at the charity, all of whom were allowed to open accounts.
He needs the help of a colleague, who fixes his pen at the right spot, to scribble his almost unreadable signature.

"My signature may look ugly, but nobody can replicate it," he told the BBC.

He says the bank first refused him an account because he was blind. "I asked them whether my blindness makes me a lesser citizen of India."

Bank officials then agreed to open an account, but told Mr Pincha the cheque facility would only be made available to him if he signed an agreement to bear any risk of fraud, he says.

"I was not ready to furnish the undertaking, because no other ordinary Indian citizen has to do so. I decided to go to the high court," Mr Pincha said.

The bank argued that safeguards were needed to stop "unscrupulous people" misusing visually-impaired account-holders' cheque books.

Its lawyers cited an order by India's chief disability commissioner, which makes it mandatory for blind bank account holders to agree to bear risks before being given cheque books.

The order states that all cheques are to be crossed and the account holder's thumb impression should be affixed and authenticated by the bank.