Punjab

Faridkot

CC/19/118

Navneet Kaur - Complainant(s)

Versus

Central Board of Secondary Education - Opp.Party(s)

Sandeep Handa

17 Dec 2019

ORDER

    DISTRICT CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL FORUM, FARIDKOT

 

            Complaint No. :          118 of 2019

Date of Institution :      01.05.2019

Date of Decision :        17.12.2019

Navneet Kaur aged about 20 years  student d/o Rajinder Singh r/o  Quarter No. 16 W.N.10, New Complex, Police Line, Faridkot.

                                    .....Complainant

Versus

1. Central Board of Secondary Education through its Chairperson, “Shiksha Kendra’, 2, Community Centre, Preet Vihar, Delhi, 110092.                                                                            
2. CBSE Regional Office, Central Board of Secondary Education, Plot No. 17, Sector 5, Panchkula, Haryana Regional Office, Panchkula, Haryana through its Chairperson.
3. Baba Farid Public School, Faridkot through its Principal, Harindra Nagar, Faridkot.

.........OPs

Complaint under Section 12 of the

Consumer Protection Act, 1986.

 

Quorum:     Sh. Ajit Aggarwal, President,

Ms. Parampal Kaur, Member,

Present:       Sh Sandeep Handa, Ld Counsel for complainant,

 Sh Navjot Singh Wahniwal, Ld Counsel for OP-3,

OP-1 and OP-2 Exparte.

ORDER

(Ajit Aggarwal, President)

                                                                              cc no. 118 of 2019

                                            Complainant has filed the present complaint under Section 12 of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 against OPs for deficiency in service and for seeking directions to OPs to correct the name of mother of complainant in the record of school as well as in the record of Board and for further directing OPs to pay compensation of Rs.50,000/- for inconvenience, harassment and mental agony suffered by complainants besides litigation expenses of Rs.11,000/-.

2                                         Briefly stated, case of the complainant is that she completed her regular studies from Nursery to 10+2 in Baba Farid Public School, Faridkot/OP-3 affiliated with OP-1 and OP-2 CBSE. It is submitted that at the time of admission of complainant in school, name of her mother was registered as ‘Sarabjeet Kaur’ and it remained as it is ‘Sarabjeet Kaur’ in all DMCs. Due to negligence of OPs, DMC of complainant for 12^th standard came with wrong spellings of her mother name as ‘Sarabjit Kaur’ though correct spellings of her mother’s name are ‘Sarabjeet Kaur’. When complainant checked wrong and incorrect spellings of name of her mother on website of OP-2 and OP-3, she immediately approached OP-1 and requested them to correct the spellings of name of mother of complainant and in response to request of complainant, OP-3 wrote letter to OP-2 on 8.01.2017 for correcting the spellings. Letter to correct the spellings of mother name of complainant was sent by OP-3 on 8.01.2017 and it was issued much prior to the

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printing of hard copy of Senior School Certificate/DMC, which was printed on 28.05.2017 by OP-1. Complainant received the said certificate with wrong spellings of her mother name. Despite issuance of letters and repeated requests by complainant, OPs did not correct the name of mother of complainant and issued her certificate with wrong spellings of her mother’s name. All this happened due to negligence of all the OPs and this act of OPs has caused great harassment and mental tension to complainant, which amounts to deficiency in service and unfair trade practice. Complainant has prayed for accepting the complaint alongwith compensation for inconvenience, harassment, mental agony besides cost of litigation. Hence, the complaint.

3                                        The Counsel for complainant was heard with regard to admission of the complaint and vide order dated 7.05.2019, complaint was admitted and notice was ordered to be issued to the opposite parties.

4                                        On receipt of the notice, OP-3 filed written reply and they have denied all the allegations of complainant being wrong and incorrect and asserted that said certificate is not issued by answering OP and even no such correction in name of mother of complainant can be done by them. It is further averred that complainant never approached them regarding any such complaint for correction of spellings of her mother name and answering OP is not competent to make any such correction in

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the DMC issued by OP-1. All the other allegations are denied being wrong and incorrect and prayed for dismissal of complaint with costs.

5                                  Notice issued to OP-1 and OP-2 through registered cover did not receive back undelivered. It was presumed to be served. Despite expiry of statutory period, no body appeared in the Forum on behalf of OP-1 and OP-2 on date fixed either in person or through counsel, therefore, vide order dated 16.07.2019, both OP-1 and OP-2 were proceeded against exparte.                  

 6                          Parties wanted to lead evidence to prove their respective pleadings and proper opportunity was given to them. The complainant tendered in evidence his affidavit Ex.C-1 and documents Ex C-2 to C-16 and then, closed the evidence.

7                             Despite availing sufficient opportunities, OP-3 did not conclude their evidence, therefore, vide order dated 11.12.2019, evidence of OP-3 was closed by order of this Forum.

8                         Ld Counsel for complainant argued that complainant completed her regular studies from Nursery to 10+2 in school of OP-3 affiliated with OP-1 and OP-2 CBSE and at the time of her admission in school, name of her mother was registered as ‘Sarabjeet Kaur’ and it remained as it is ‘Sarabjeet Kaur’ in all DMCs, but due to negligence of OPs, she received her DMC for 10^th standard with wrong and incorrect spellings of her mother’s name as ‘Sarabjit Kaur’ though

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correct spellings of name of her mother are ‘Sarabjeet Kaur’. When complainant checked wrongs spellings of name of her mother on website of OPs, she immediately approached OP-1 and requested them to correct the spellings of name of her mother from Sarabjit Kaur to ‘Sarabjeet Kaur’ and on her request OP-3 issued letter to OP-2 on 8.01.2017 for doing the needful by correcting the spellings. Letter in this regard was sent by OP-3 on 8.01.2017 and it was issued much prior to the printing of hard copy of Senior School Certificate/DMC, which was printed on 28.05.2017 by OP-1 and thus, complainant received the said certificate with wrong spellings of her mother name. Despite issuance of letters and repeated requests by complainant, OPs did not correct the name of mother of complainant and issued her certificate with wrong spellings of her mother name, which amounts to deficiency in service on the part of OPs and it has caused her huge harassment and mental agony. Prayer for accepting the present complaint alongwith compensation and litigation expenses is made.

9                                       To controvert the allegations of complainants, ld counsel for OP-3 argued that there is no deficiency in service on the part of OP-3 as certificate in question is not issued by them and moreover, requisite correction cannot be done by them. As per OP-3,  complainant never approached them regarding any such complaint for correction of spellings of her mother name and OP-3 is not competent to make any such correction in the DMC issued by OP-1. It is further argued that there is no

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deficiency in service on the part of OP-3 and  requested for dismissal of present complaint.

10                                       We have heard learned counsel for parties and have very carefully gone through the affidavits & documents placed on the file by complainant as well as opposite party.

11                                         Careful perusal of the case file shows that it is the admitted case of parties that complainant took admission in the school of OP-3 in Nursery and passed out her senior secondary class from there i.e she remained there for long time and completed her education upto secondary level from there. Grievance of complainant is that in her 12^th standard DMC issued by Ops spellings of her mother name are incorrectly written. Correct spellings of name of her mother are ‘Sarabjeet Kaur’ but on the certificate issued by OPs, name of her mother is spelt as ‘Sarabjit Kaur’. On all the documents submitted by complainant at the time of her admission in school of OP-3, spellings of her mother name are as ‘Sarabjeet Kaur’, but due to negligence on the part of all OPs, she received her certificate with incorrect spellings of her mother name.

12                                  It is observed that while sending any document pertaining to particulars of date of birth, address and name of mother/father or guardian to CBSE, New Delhi, school should check the correctness of these things very carefully and should match all these documents with the birth certificate and other documents like adhar card,

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voter identity cards and other documents issued by Government. To prove her case, that correct spellings of name of mother of complainant are Sarabjeet Kaur and not Sarabjit Kaur, she produced copy of folio of  Admission and Withdrawal Register of OP-3 as Ex C-2 and Ex C-3, Registration Form for Admission in school of OP-3 as Ex C-4, Passport of complainant Ex C-6 and her Adhar Card Ex C-7, copy of Adhar Card of mother of complainant Ex C-8, DMC of 10^th Standard issued by OP-1 and OP-2 is Ex C-11, Migration Certificate of complainant is Ex C-12, Admission form of complainant for OP-3 school is Ex C-14 and school leaving certificate issued by OP-3 is Ex C-15. In all these documents, the spellings of name of mother of complainant are written as Sarabjeet Kaur, whereas in Detail Marks Card of Senior Secondary School Certificate Ex C-10, spellings are written as Sarabjit Kaur, which are incorrect. In Final list of students registered for class XI (2015-2016) eligible for Class XII Examination Year 2016-2017, name of mother is incorrectly spelt as Sarabjit Kaur instead of Sarabjeet Kaur, copy of this list is Ex C-13. In Admission Card for Senior Secondary Examination issued by OP-1 and OP-2 Ex C-16 also, the name of mother of complainant is wrongly spelt. Correct spellings of name of mother of complainant are Sarabjeet Kaur, but her name been wrongly spelt by writing Sarajit Kaur instead of Sarabjeet Kaur. There is no doubt that when complainant came to know about this fact, she immediately approached OPs for necessary correction. She further placed on record copy of letter issued by OP-3 to OP-2 for

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necessary correction in the spellings of name of her mother. The copy of said letter is Ex C-5. From these documents, it is clear that correct spellings of name of mother of complainant are Sarabjeet Kaur, but OP-1 and OP-2 wrongly wrote incorrect spellings of name of mother of complainant in her Senior School Certificate as Sarabjit Kaur and OP-3 school also wrote letter to OP-1 and OP-2 for making necessary correction in the spellings of name of mother of complainant from Sarabjit Kaur to Sarabjeet Kaur, but all this bore no fruit. There is no doubt that complainant made several requests to OPs to correct the spellings of her mother name from Sarabjit Kaur to Sarabjeet Kaur in their record in accordance with the adhar card of her mother submitted by complainant to OPs. Moreover, when complainant approached OPs with request to correct the spellings of her mother’s name in their record, OPs should have made correction keeping in view the documents submitted by complainant containing correct spellings of her mother’s name. Hence, in these circumstances, we are of the considered opinion that act of OPs in not rectifying their own record is inappropriate and it amounts to deficiency in service and unfair trade practice.

13                                            In the light of above discussion, complaint in hand is hereby allowed. OP-1 and OP-2 are ordered to rectify in their record spellings of name of mother of complainant as per documents submitted by her. OPs are further ordered to re-issue certificate to complainant with correct spellings of her mother’s name

cc no. 118 of 2019

from Sarabjit Kaur to Sarabjeet Kaur.  OP-3 is further directed to provide necessary documents if any, required by OP-1 and OP-2 for making necessary rectification in the spellings of name of mother of complainant. Compliance be made jointly and severally within one month of the receipt of the copy of the order, failing which complainants shall be entitled to proceed under section 25 and 27 of the Consumer Protection Act. Copy of the order be issued to parties as per rules. File be consigned to record room.

Announced in open Forum:

Dated: 17.12.2019

 

                                         (Param Pal Kaur)                   (Ajit Aggarwal)

Member                                      President