BEFORE THE DISTRICT CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL COMMISSION, SIRSA.
Consumer Complaint no. 63 of 2024
Date of Institution : 20.02.2024
Date of Decision : 25.07.2024
Lovepreet Singh (aged about 31 years) son of Shri Nirmal Singh, resident of Dhani Suchan, Tehsil and District Sirsa.
……Complainant.
Versus.
1. Cars24 Network, Delhi Bye-Pass Road, Near Public Service Station, Opposite Police Mess, Sunder Nagar, Shastri Nagar, Hisar – 125001, through its authorized Signatory/ person.
2. Cars24 Corporate Head Office, Tower C, 7th Floor, SAS Building, Ch. Bakhtawar Singh Road, Medicity-I, Sector 38, Gurugram (Haryana) – 122001, through its authorized signatory/ person.
…….Opposite Parties.
Complaint under Section 35 of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019.
Before: SH. PADAM SINGH THAKUR……. PRESIDENT
MRS.SUKHDEEP KAUR……………MEMBER.
SH. OM PARKASH TUTEJA…………..MEMBER
Present: Sh. Yashvinder Pal Kamboj, Advocate for the complainant.
Opposite parties already exparte.
ORDER
The complainant has filed the present complaint under Section 35 of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 against the opposite parties (hereinafter referred as Ops).
2. In brief, the case of complainant is that complainant is owner of Car bearing registration No. HR-30N/5133 (Model 2013) Volksvagon Vento and he applied to op no.1 to sell his car vide appointment ID No. 1478057084. The complainant sold the car on 07.03.2020 through op no.1 which carries on business on behalf of op no.2 with sale price of Rs.2,35,000/- and handed over to op no.1 and thereafter at the time of delivery of aforesaid vehicle to op no.1, the op no.1 handed over documents of car delivery, payment receipt, buying docket including Seller Protection Policy to the complainant. It is further averred that op no.1 sold the aforesaid car to third party namely Ajay Maan but he did not get transferred the vehicle in his name and unfortunately an accident took place with the said car and one person died in the said accident. An FIR was registered for the said accident and claim petition No. MACP/ 534/2022 titled as Rekha Versus Ajay Maan etc. was also filed against the complainant. It is further averred that Cars24 Seller Protection Policy assures to protect the registered car owner from any case which may be lodged against registered owner in case of any mis-happening/ accident involving the aforesaid vehicle and as per clause 4 of said policy Cars 24 will engage a lawyer at its own cost to represent registered owner before and with any judicial, whenever required. That complainant approached to op no.2 through its toll free number as well as official mail ID to engage the lawyer to defend the said case on behalf of complainant and they stated to the complainant that said issue will be transferred to Legal Cell Department. It is further averred that Cars24 provided the number of Advocate namely Sh. Akhil Bhasin and complainant tried to engage said Advocate but he did not respond to the call of complainant. Thereafter, complainant tried to call on toll free number of op no.2 but no action was taken by op no.2 and by that time date of claim petition came near but ops no.1 and 2 every time lingered on the matter on one pretext or the other and ultimately complainant himself engaged a lawyer namely Sh. Harish Arya, Advocate, District Courts Karnal to defend the case of complainant in aforesaid claim petition. It is further averred that complainant has paid Rs.45,000/- as legal fee (including counsel fee, drafting as well as misc. expenses) of said lawyer for defending his claim petition. That complainant also sent the aforesaid fee receipt to op no.2 through registered mail upon which op no.2 provided mobile number of Sh. Ujwal Tandon and sh. Jugal Mishra to take assistance in the matter of reimbursement of legal fee. Thereafter complainant approached the office of op no.2 time and again and also sent the fee receipt to the aforesaid persons but they did not reimburse/ transfer the aforesaid amount of Rs.45,000/- in the account of complainant despite his several requests and lingered on the matter with one pretext or the other. It is further averred that thereafter on 12.02.2024 complainant told the matter to Sh. Yashvinder Pal Kamboj, Advocate and on 13.02.2024 he sent an email to the official website of op no.2 for reimbursement/ transfer of the legal fee of Rs.45,000/- in favour of complainant within five days and op no.2 replied that they will send the amount after negotiating in the account of complainant/ seller but till date no amount has been transferred in his account and ops have caused harassment, deficiency in service and unfair trade practice towards complainant. Hence, this complaint.
3. Notice of the complaint was given to the ops through registered covers and despite delivery of notice, none appeared on behalf of ops and as such ops were proceeded against exparte.
4. The complainant in evidence has tendered his affidavit Ex. CW1/A and documents Ex.C1 to Ex.C12.
5. We have heard learned counsel for complainant and have gone through the case file.
6. It is proved on record that on 07.03.2020 complainant sold his Car in question to op no.1 for a sum of Rs.2,35,0,00/- and op no.1 further sold the said car of complainant to one Ajay Maan and according to complainant, said Ajay Maan did not get the Car in question registered in his name. It is further case of complainant that said Car met with an accident and one person died in the accident, FIR was registered and claim petition No. MACP/ 534 of 2022 titled as Rekha Versus Ajay Mann etc. was also filed in which complainant has been arrayed as respondent but ops have failed to engage any counsel despite customer protection policy (Ex.C3) and also failed to pay legal fee of Rs.45,000/- paid by him to Sh. Harish Arya, Advocate of Karnal as per his certificate Ex.C7. Learned counsel for complainant also argued that due to act and conduct of ops, the complainant is suffering unnecessary harassment as despite selling car by complainant on 07.03.2020, the car in question has not been got registered in the name of Ajay Mann. No doubt as per Cars 24 Customer Protection Policy dated 07.03.2020 provided by ops to the complainant, it was undertaken by ops that Cars24 will engage a lawyer at its own (s) to represent him before and with any judicial/ quasi judicial/ law enforcement agencies. It is evident from transaction document Ex.C11 that on 20.02.2024 ops transferred an amount of Rs.10,000/- to the complainant on account of legal fee after email dated 13.02.2024 of counsel for complainant. So, the ops have paid sufficient amount as counsel fee to the complainant and he cannot be paid the amount as legal/ counsel fee as per his own wishes because an amount of Rs.10,000/- as counsel fee cannot be said meager amount in a claim petition. It is fact that anyone can engage any counsel for more exaggerated amount as per his own wishes but it cannot be said that as he paid exaggerated amount as counsel fee, he is entitled to such amount from ops and an amount of Rs.45,000/- as allegedly paid by complainant as counsel fee is very exaggerated amount for defending claim petition. The complainant has failed to prove on record that what was the date of hearing, appearance of complainant in that claim petition. It appears that complainant before the date of his appearance in hurry engaged his counsel without waiting response from the side of ops as ops could have asked any counsel to appear in claim petition on the date of appearance but prior to that complainant himself engaged his counsel and as such ops paid amount of Rs.10,000/- to the complainant on 20.02.2024 as counsel fee. As such, we are of the considered view that ops have rightly paid sufficient amount of Rs.10,000/- to the complainant as counsel fee and he is not entitled to any other amount from ops and complaint deserves dismissal.
7. In view of our above discussion, we do not find any merit in the present complaint and same is hereby dismissed but with no order as to costs. A copy of this order be supplied to the parties as per rules. File be consigned to the record room.
Announced. Member Member President,
Dated: 25.07.2024. District Consumer Disputes
Redressal Commission, Sirsa.
