JUDGMENT

                                                             14.1.2010

Justice Pritam Pal, President

1.         This appeal  by complainant for enhancement of compensation  is   directed against the  order dated 10.8.2009 passed by District Consumer Forum-I, U.T.Chandigarh  whereby his  complaint bearing No.414 of 2009     was allowed  in the following terms ;

          “The OP No.1 is, therefore, directed to comply their undertaking of reversing all the amounts and showing amount due from the Complainant as ‘Nil’ and also to pay Rs.500/- as litigation charges. The order shall be complied within 30 days from the date of receipt of the copy of the order, failing which they would be liable to pay the same along with interest @12% per annum since the filing of complaint i.e. 25.03.2009 till its actual payment to complainant.  ”

2.         The parties  hereinafter shall be referred to as per their ranking before the District Consumer Forum. 

3.         In nutshell, the  facts culminating to the commencement of this appeal may be recapitulated thus ;

            Complainant was subscriber of Credit Card bearing No. 4339511566196952 issued by OP No. 1, which was issued to him in the month of February, 2008 and the same was valid upto 2011. He was regular in use of the said card and  was making   payments for the same to the OPs. He received a summary of account in the month of Oct., 2008 for the period Sept. 2008 to Oct. 2008 showing outstanding amount of Rs.2120.90P, which he immediately deposited with OP No. 2 on 25.10.2008.   Thereafter, he received another summary of statement for the month of Oct. 2008 to Nov. 2008 which   was showing the previous balance of Rs.2120.09P and payment received as only Rs.0.09 and the outstanding balance was shown to be Rs.2844.07. He immediately approached the OPs  whereupon it was assured that they would check the accounts and the said amount would be settled in the next bill.  Again in the month of Dec., 2008, he received a summary of statement for the month of Nov. to Dec. 2008 and was surprised to see that the said statement was showing previous payment received as Rs.2121/- and balance outstanding was still shown in the said statement and the interest/ charges of Rs.67.90P had been imposed. Again in the month of Jan. 2009, he received another statement showing the previous balance as Rs.709.97/- whereas he had already made the payment and in the said bill outstanding amount was shown to be Rs.1498.74/-.  The complainant  approached the OPs to settle the accounts as well as interest/charges, but instead of rectifying the account statement, the Bank had closed the credit card which was valid upto 2011 without informing him and without explaining any reason. Hence, alleging   deficiency in service and unfair trade practice complainant had filed complaint before the District Forum.

4.         On the other hand, the case of OP No.1 before the District Forum was that   as per the account of the Complainant for the period 8.9.2008 to 8.10.2009, a sum of Rs.2120/- was due for the payment, which was reflected in the summary of account dated 8.10.2008.  It was pleaded that for its effective banking operations and for the convenience of its customers, the OP No. 1 had engaged the services of an independent agency, BSA Infomedia Pvt. Ltd., OP No.2, for the collection of the outstanding amounts from the customers of OP No.1. It was admitted that the Complainant made payment of Rs.2121/- to the representative of OP No. 2 against receipt dated 25.10.2008 but OP No. 2 failed to deposit the said amount with OP No. 1 due to which the said amount was not credited to the account of the Complainant and got reflected as outstanding in further statements of account.   OP No. 1  then decided to reverse all the outstanding amounts of the Complainant in dispute including late payment charges and interest thereon and on reversal of all the charges by the OP No. 1, nothing was due from the Complainant. It was pleaded that there was no deficiency in service and a prayer was made for dismissal of the complaint.   OP NO.2, however, did not appear before the District Forum  and suffered ex parte proceedings.

5.           The learned District Consumer Forum after going through the  evidence and material brought on record and   hearing the learned counsel for the parties, allowed the complaint as indicated in the opening part of this judgment.  Still dissatisfied, complainant   has come up in this appeal for enhancement of compensation.  

6.         We have gone through the file and material placed before the District Forum carefully and find that the factual position as put forth by the complainant is more or less admitted by OP No.1.  Now the only noticeable point contained in the grounds of appeal is that the learned District Consumer Forum inspite of holding the OP No.1 deficient in their service has erred by not granting compensation on account of mental tension, agony and harassment suffered by  the complainant. A perusal of the file shows that  inspite  of bringing the deficiency in service to the notice  of OP NO.1 by complainant, no corrective steps to undo the mistake occurred in summary statement, were taken.  In this regard the learned District Forum misconcepted the grievance of the complainant by not considering the fact that he (complainant) must have remained under mental tension and agony at the hands of OP right from the period October,2008.  Admittedly complainant had always been making the payment regularly without any fault on his part but OPs had been showing the balance of the amount which in fact was already paid to them and for that complainant had to approach OP NO.1 time and again.  Thus, on this count, we feel that complainant should have been compensated for mental tension, agony and harassment at the hands of OP.

7.         In these  given facts and circumstances of the case,  we are of the considered opinion that a lumpsum compensation of Rs.2000/- would meet the ends of justice. So, we order accordingly.

8.         In view of the foregoing discussion, this appeal filed by the complainant is allowed with costs which are quantified at Rs.1500/-. The aforesaid relief of compensation granted to the complainant by this Commission on account of mental agony, tension and harassment would be in addition to the relief already granted by the District Consumer Forum. 

             Certified copies of this order be communicated to the parties, free of charge. The file be consigned to records.