JUSTICE V.K.JAIN, PRESIDING MEMBER (ORAL)

          The complainants/petitioners claim to have purchased water packed in Bisleri bottle from a restaurant namely ‘Hotel Kiran’ in Jhalawar.  Each complainant claims to have bought one bottle each from the said hotel on the same date, though at different times.  The case of the petitioners/complainants is that there was foreign substance/trash inside the water bottles and when they complained to the hotel, they were told that the hotel was selling the bottle as received from the dealer and if they had any complaint to make, they could make their complaint to the dealer/manufacturer. Being aggrieved, the petitioners/complainants sent a legal notice to the hotel as well as to the dealer and manufacturer of the product.  Since no relief was provided to them, they approached the concerned District Forum by way of three separate consumer complaints. 

2.      The complaints were resisted by the respondents.  It was inter-alia stated in the reply filed that there was no foreign product in the bottle sold by them; the manufacturer namely Bisleri International Pvt. Ltd. conformed to the highest standards and they were using the latest technology.  It was further stated that their products did not have any defect or deficiency in them.  It was also claimed that the manufacturer had installed a state of the art water treatment plant where the bottles were being packed and every product was being subjected to stringent quality check. 

3.      The District Forum having dismissed the complaint, the petitioners approached the concerned State Commission by way of three separate appeals.  The said appeals also having been dismissed, they are before this Commission by way of these revision petitions. 

4.      It is an admitted position that on allegedly finding trash in the water bottles, the complainants did not lodge any written complaint with the hotel from which the said bottles were purchased.  It is also an admitted position that the water bottles were not returned by them to the hotel.  In the normal course of human conduct, if a person is offered a water bottle containing trash or some foreign material inside it, the first attempt of the buyer would be to return the bottle since no one would like to pay for the water which he cannot consume.  There is no explanation for not adopting the aforesaid natural course of conduct. 

It is also an admitted position that for almost four months from the date of the purchase, the complainants/petitioners did not send any written complaint or notice either to the hotel from where the bottles were purchased or to the manufacturer or dealer.  Again there is no convincing explanation as to why the petitioners/complainants were silent for about four months and did not bother even to send a written complaint either to the manufacturer or to the hotel from which the water bottles were allegedly purchased.  Considering the subsequent act of the petitioners/complainants in taking the trouble of first going to the District Forum and then to the State Commission, followed by the visit to this Commission, the aforesaid course of conduct was quite unnatural. 

It is also an admitted position that despite allegedly finding foreign substance/trash inside the bottles, the petitioners did not try to send the said bottles to an appropriate laboratory with a request to examine the same and give a report.  Again, there is no explanation for not adopting the course of action. 

5.      Admittedly, the bottles alleged to have been purchased by the petitioners/complainants were not produced before the District Forum at the time of institution of the complaint.  Admittedly, no application, alongwith consumer complaint, was filed requesting the District Forum to send the bottles to an appropriate laboratory.  Again, there is no explanation as to why the aforesaid course of action was not adopted by the petitioners/complainants. 

6.      The learned counsel for the petitioners/complainants emphasizes that the respondents could have also requested the District Forum to send the bottles to the appropriate laboratory.  There is no denial that any party including the OP in a consumer complaint, can make such a request to the District Forum but, that does not absolve the petitioners/complainants from discharging the onus placed on them to prove that the water bottles purchased by them were genuine bottles manufactured by Bisleri International Pvt. Ltd. and there was no tampering with the said bottles till the time they allegedly found trash inside the bottles.  The petitioners/complainants, in my opinion, failed to discharge the said onus placed on them. 

7.      For the reasons stated hereinabove, I find no good reason to interfere with the concurrent view taken by the fora below.  The revision petitions, being devoid of any merits, are hereby dismissed.