Punjab

Faridkot

CC/19/104

Nitu Gupta - Complainant(s)

Versus

Adarsh Credit Co-operative Society Ltd. - Opp.Party(s)

Vipan KumarTayal

07 Jan 2020

ORDER

DISTRICT CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL FORUM, FARIDKOT

 

C.C. No. :               104 of 2019

Date of Institution:    12.04.2019

Date of Decision :     07.01.2020

 

Nitu Gupta aged about 45 years wife of Rajiv Kumar Gupta r/o Old Jail road, Dr Paras Wali Gali, Faridkot, Tehsil and District Faridkot.

...Complainant

Versus

1. Adarsh Credit Co-operative Society Ltd having its Branch Office situated Opposite Balbir Basti, Upstair Muthoot Finance, Faridkot, Tehsil and District Faridkot through its Branch Manager/Authorized Signatory.
2. Adarsh Credit Co-operative Society Ltd having its registered office at Sirohi Rajasthan through its MD/Authorized Signatory.

                       ....Opposite parties

 

Complaint under Section 12 of the

Consumer Protection Act, 1986.

 

Quorum:     Sh. Ajit Aggarwal, President,

Smt. Param Pal Kaur, Member.

 

Present:        Sh Vipan Tayal, Ld Counsel for complainant,    

                    Sh Iqbal Kaushal, Ld Counsel for OPs,

ORDER

(Ajit Aggarwal, President)

 

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                              Complainant has filed the present complaint under Section 12 of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 against Ops seeking directions to them to pay Rs.59,230.91 with interest and for further directing them to pay Rs. one lac as compensation for harassment and mental agony suffered by complainant besides litigation expenses of Rs.10,000/-.

2                                              Briefly stated, the case of the complainant is that complainant holds an account with OP-1 and OP-1 apprised complainant for investing his money with them and allured to give good interest. On assurance of OP-1, on 10.11.2017, complainant deposited Rs.50,000/-with them for 15 months and in turn OPs issued him FDR for Rs.57,457/-with date of maturity 12.02.2019. Further submitted that on 22.02.2019, OP-1 deposited Rs.57,457/- i.e maturity value of amount deposited by her in her account, but when complainant approached Ops to withdraw the said amount, OPs did not allow her to withdraw the amount and kept lingering on the matter on one pretext or the other. Complainant made several requests to Ops that she is in need of money, but OPs flatly refused to release the amount deposited in her account. Even legal notice served to OPs also served no purpose. It is further submitted that despite repeated requests, OPs did not do anything needful, which amounts to deficiency in service on the part of OPs and has caused huge harassment and mental agony to complainant. Complainant has prayed for accepting

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the present complaint alongwith compensation and litigation expenses besides the main relief. Hence, the instant complaint.

3                                             The Counsel for complainant was heard with regard to admission of the complaint and vide order dated 23.04.2019,  complaint was admitted and notice was ordered to be issued to the opposite party.

 4                                       OP-1  and OP-2 filed reply through counsel wherein they have denied all the allegations of complainant being wrong and incorrect and asserted that there is no deficiency in service on their part and asserted that in decision of CP No.146/Ch./Hr./2018 titled as Union of India Vs M/s Adarsh Buildestate Limited and others, National Company Law Tribunal, Chandigarh, vide its order dated 17.07.2018 has restrained the OPs from alienating, transferring, encumbering any of their immovable property and property comprising of shares, mutual funds etc and also directed them to  not to withdraw or transfer any amount from their banks. And thus, due to this reason OPs are unable to transfer any amount. Moreover, they have also filed Special Leave Application before Hon’ble High Court of Gujarat at Ahmedabad against the order of National Company Tribunal and Hon’ble High Court of Gujarat-Ahmedabad, vide order dated 2.12.2018 has directed OPs to maintain status – quo and that is why answering Ops are bound by the orders of Hon’ble High Court and are unable to transfer any amount from their

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account. It is averred that there is no deficiency in service on the part of answering OPs and complainant has filed the present complaint only to cause harassment to them. All  the other allegations are also refuted with prayer to dismiss the complaint with costs.

5                                       Parties were given proper opportunities to produce evidence to prove their respective case. Ld counsel for complainant tendered in evidence affidavit of complainant Ex.C-1 and documents Ex C-2 to C-5 and then, closed the evidence.

6                                     To controvert the allegations of complainant, ld counsel for OP-1 and OP-2 tendered in evidence affidavit of Gurpreet Singh Ex OP-1 and documents Ex OP-2 to Ex OP-5 and then  closed the evidence on behalf of OPs.

7                                     From the careful perusal of record and after going through evidence and documents produced on file by complainant as well as OPs, it is observed that case of complainant is that she has an account with OP-1 and on assurance of OP-1, she deposited amount of Rs.50,000/-with OPs for 15 months. OPs issued FDR for Rs.57,457/-with date of maturity12.02.2019 and on maturity, OP-1 deposited Rs.57,457/- as maturity value of amount deposited in her account and now, Rs.59,230.91 is balance in her account, but when complainant approached Ops to withdraw her amount, OPs did not release the same. Grievance of

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complainant is that despite repeated requests and issuance of legal notice, OPs did not release maturity value to complainant and flatly refused to pay the amount for which she is fully entitled. It amounts to deficiency in service. Complainant has prayed for accepting the present complaint. In reply, ld counsel for OPs admitted before the Forum that complainant deposited Rs.50,000/-with them for which they issued FDR and there is no deficiency in service on their part as they are bound for not releasing any amount. It is submitted that in decision of CP No.146/Ch./Hr./2018 titled as Union of India Vs M/s Adarsh Buildestate Limited and others, National Company Law Tribunal, Chandigarh, vide its order dated 17.07.2018 has restrained OPs from alienating, transferring, encumbering any of their immovable property and property comprising of shares, mutual funds etc and also directed them to  not to withdraw or transfer any amount from their banks. And thus, due to this reason OPs are unable to transfer any amount. Even in Special Leave Application filed by OPs before Hon’ble High Court of Gujarat at Ahmedabad against the order of National Company Tribunal, the Hon’ble High Court of Gujarat - Ahmedabad, vide order dated 2.12.2018 has directed OPs to maintain status – quo and that is why Ops are bound by the orders of Hon’ble High Court and cannot transfer any amount from their account. There is no deficiency in service on the part of OPs and prayed for dismissal of complaint with cost.

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8                              We have thoroughly gone through the file and have carefully perused the documents produced on record by parties. It is observed that grievance of complainant is that despite his repeated requests and legal notice served through counsel, OPs did not release the amount in question to her, which amounts to deficiency in service and has and caused harassment and mental agony to her. It is admitted by Ops that complainant deposited the amount in question with them and it is also admitted that amount of Rs.59,230.91 was available in the account of complainant on 22.02.2019. There is no denial to the fact that they did not release this amount to complainant for which she was fully entitled. Plea taken by OPs for not releasing the amount in question is that they have been restrained by the order of Hon’ble National Company Tribunal and even Hon’ble High Court of Gujarat - Ahmedabad, vide order dated 2.12.2018 has directed them to maintain status – quo and due to this reasons, Ops are bound by the orders of Hon’ble High Court and cannot transfer any amount from their account.

9                                            From the above discussion and keeping in view the evidence placed on record by respective parties, it is observed that there is deficiency in service on the part of OP-1 and OP-2 in not releasing the amount deposited in the account of complainant to her. They have no right to detain the amount of complainant and they have deprived him of interest accrued over this amount. Therefore, complaint in hand is

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hereby allowed with direction to OPs to release the amount of Rs.59,230.91 to complainant alongwith interest at the rate of 9% per anum from 22.02.2019 till final realization subject to decision of Hon’ble National Company Law Tribunal, Chandigarh. OPs are further directed to pay Rs.5,000/- to complainant as consolidated compensation for harassment and mental agony suffered by him and for litigation expenses incurred by complainant on present complaint. Compliance of this order be made within one month of decision of Hon’ble National Company Law Tribunal, Chandigarh, failing which complainant shall be entitled to proceed under Section 25 and 27 of the Consumer Protection Act. Copy of the order be supplied to parties free of cost. File be consigned to the record room. 

Announced in Open Forum

Dated: 7.01.2020

(Param Pal Kaur)                  (Ajit Aggarwal)  

 Member                               President