Punjab

Faridkot

CC/18/20

Ekta Bholewasi - Complainant(s)

Versus

Dashmesh Public School - Opp.Party(s)

Ashu Mittal

24 Apr 2019

ORDER

    DISTRICT CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL FORUM, FARIDKOT

 

C.C. No. :               20 of 2018

Date of Institution :  13.02.2018

Date of Decision :     24.04.2019

 

Ekta Bholewasi aged about 19 years d/o Rakesh Kumar s/o Ram Parkash r/o SBS College Road, Kotkapura, Tehsil Kotkapura, District Faridkot.

                                    .....Complainant

Versus

1. Dashmesh Public School, Partap Singh Nagar, Kotkapura through its Principal.
2. Shah Satnam Ji Girls’ School, Sirsa through its Principal.
3. Central Board of Secondary Education, (CBSE) Regional Office, Sector 5, Panchkula.

                                                     .........OPs

Complaint under Section 12 of the

Consumer Protection Act, 1986.

 

Quorum:     Sh  Ajit Aggarwal, President,

Smt  Param Pal Kaur, Member,

Present:       Sh Ashu Mittal, Ld Counsel for complainant,

 Sh Neeraj Maheshwary, Ld Counsel for OP-2,

OP-1 and OP-3 Exparte.

 

ORDER

(Ajit Aggarwal, President)

                                                  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

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complainant and her parents in the certificate of 10^th issued by OPs and for further directing OPs to pay compensation of Rs.50,000/- for inconvenience, harassment and mental agony suffered by complainants besides litigation expenses.

2                         Briefly stated, the case of the complainant is that she studied upto 5^th in the school of OP-1 and thereafter, she took admission in the school of OP-2 and in the school records, name of complainant was earlier entered as Ekta Bholewai, her father’s name was entered as Rakesh Kumar and her mother’s name was entered as Sudesh Rani. Complainant studied in the school of OP-2 upto 10^th and OP-3 issued certificate of 10^th to complainant wherein surname of complainant and her parents has been removed without her consent and names of complainant and her parents have been changed to Ekta, Rakesh and Sudesh respectively. Complainant approached OPs, who admitted their fault and OP-3 sought certain documents from her like Admission Form filled in by her parents at the time of admission, School Leaving Certificate of previous school and withdrawal register of school in which entry regarding candidate was made. Complainant duly supplied all the requisite documents to OP-3 and thereafter on asking of OP-3, complainant got published her name in gazette notification in 2015, but despite submission of all requisite documents and completion of all formalities, OPs have not changed name of complainant and her parent in 10^th certificate and till now have not issued amended certificate of 10^th to her. All 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

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accepting the complaint alongwith compensation for inconvenience, harassment and 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 20.02.2018, complaint was admitted and notice was ordered to be issued to the opposite parties.

4                                              On receipt of the notice, OP-2 filed written statement taking preliminary objections that this Forum has no jurisdiction to hear and try the present complaint and it is time barred as complainant passed his 10^th class in year 2013 and she has filed the present complaint in year 2018 after delay of 5 years and therefore, present complaint is barred by limitation and is liable to be dismissed. complaint involves complicated questions of law and facts requiring voluminous evidence, which is not possible in summary procedure of this Forum and complainant has no locus standi to file the same as there is no deficiency in service on their part. They have entered the same particulars regarding name of complainant and her parents in the record, which were provided by her parents at the time of admission. On receipt of intimation from complainant, they fully cooperated with complainant and wrote letter no.SSGS-1986 dated 26.07.2013 to OP-3 for correcting the name of complainant and her parents. Section Officer, Examination vide letter dated 4.09.2013 asked them to provide original documents of complainant, which they duly shown and submitted to them  and as per their recommendations, OP-2 have already completed the

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requisite formalities and also wrote reminder dated 19.07.2014 to OP-3 wherein requested OP-3 to change the name of complainant and her parents in their record and thus there is no deficiency in service on their part. Complainant has not come to the Forum with clean hands and is stopped by her own act and conduct to file the present complaint as no cause of action arises against them. Allegations levelled by complainant are false and frivolous and it is a misuse of process of law. However, on merits OP-3 have further denied all the allegations of complainant being wrong and incorrect and reiterated the same pleadings taken in preliminary objections. All the other allegations and allegation with regard to relief sought too were refuted with a prayer that complaint may be dismissed with costs against the answering opposite party.

5                                          Notice issued to OP-1 and OP-3 through registered cover did not receive back undelivered. It was presumed to be served. Despite expiry of statutory period, no body appeared on behalf of OP-1 and OP-3 either in person or through counsel on date fixed, therefore, vide order dated 15.05.2018, they were proceeded against exparte.                  

 6                                          Parties wanted to lead evidence to prove their respective pleadings and proper opportunity was given to them.  Ld Counsel for complainant tendered in evidence affidavit of complainant Ex.C-1 and documents Ex C-2 to C-10 and then, closed the evidence.

7                                                    In order to rebut the evidence of the complainant, Counsel for OP-2 tendered in evidence affidavit of Sheela

 

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Puniya, Principal, as Ex. OP-2/1 and document Ex OP-2/2 and then, closed the evidence.

8                                           Ld Counsel for complainant argued that she studied upto 5^th in the school of OP-1 and from 6^th to 10^th in the school of OP-2  and in the school records, name of complainant and her parents was earlier entered as Ekta Bholewai, Rakesh Kumar and Sudesh Rani. After 10^th, OP-3 issued certificate of 10^th to complainant wherein surname of complainant and her parents was removed without her consent and names of complainant and her parents have been changed to Ekta, Rakesh and Sudesh respectively. Complainant submitted all documents sought by OPs such as Admission Form filled in by her parents at the time of admission, School Leaving Certificate of previous school and withdrawal register of school in which entry regarding candidate was made. She supplied all the requisite documents to OP-3 and even on asking of OP-3, complainant got published her name in gazette notification in 2015, but despite all this, OPs have not changed name of complainant and her parents in 10^th certificate and till now they have not issued amended certificate of 10^th to her.

9                                            To controvert the allegations of complainants, ld counsel for OP-2 argued that present complaint is time barred as complainant passed his 10^th class in year 2013 and present complaint is filed in 2018 after long period of delay of 5 years and therefore, it is barred by limitation and is liable to be dismissed. It requires voluminous evidence that is not possible in summary procedure of this Forum. As per OP-2, they have entered the same particulars regarding name of complainant

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and her parents in the record, which were provided by her parents at the time of admission. OP-2 fully cooperated with complainant and wrote letter no.SSGS-1986 dated 26.07.2013 to OP-3 for correcting the name of complainant and her parents. Section Officer, Examination vide letter dated 4.09.2013 asked them to provide original documents of complainant, which they duly shown and submitted to them  and as per their recommendations, OP-2 have already completed the requisite formalities and also wrote reminder dated 19.07.2014 to OP-3 and requested OP-3 to change the name of complainant and her parents in their record. There is no deficiency in service on their part and prayed for dismissal of complaint with costs.

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 no.2.

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-2 in 6^th standard and passed out his 10^th class from their institute and thus, she remained there for long period of 5 years and completed her education upto 10^th from there. Grievance of complainant is that despite submission of requisite documents and completion of all formalities, OPs have not issued amended certificate of 10^th to her and OPs have not corrected the name of complainant and her parent in their record, which amounts to deficiency in service and it reveals that grievance of complainant is not redressed by OPs. In reply, OP-2 took plea that on receipt of information from complainant, they fully cooperated with her and wrote

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letter and reminder dated  26.07.2013 and 19.07.2014 to OP-3 and also shown and supplied requisite documents to them for the purpose of correction of name of complainant and her parents in their record. There is no deficiency in service on their part and prayed for dismissal of complaint with costs.

12                                              To prove her pleadings, complainant has placed on record copy of transfer certificate issued by Dasmesh Public School, Kotkapura wherein name of complainant and her father and mother is written as Ekta Bholewasia, Rakesh Kumar and Sudesh Rani respectively. Ex C-3 is copy of Gazette of India wherein father of complainant has declared that name of his wife and his daughter alongwith his own name is wrongly mentioned in the certificate of 10^th issued by OPs. It is also mentioned in it that he has completed all formalities for getting amended the name of his daughter, his wife and his own name in the educational certificate of her daughter. Copies of newspaper cuttings Ex C-6 and Ex C-7 also narrate the same pleadings. Request letters written by complainant to OPs to change her name in the certificate of 10^th is also clear from documents Ex C-4 and Ex C-8. Copy of Adhar Card Ex C-5 also depicts the true name of complainant. complainant has produced sufficient and cogent evidence to prove her grievance and all documents placed on record and authentic and are beyond any doubt.

13                                  It is observed that while sending any document pertaining to particulars of name of mother, name of father or guardian or regarding address to CBSE, New Delhi, school should check these things

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keenly and very carefully and should match all these documents with the birth certificate and other documents like adhar and voter identity cards and other documents issued by Government. Had this precaution of making thorough and careful checking been taken by OP-2 at the initial stage and at the time of sending these particulars to OP-3 at the time of sending registration at tenth level, nature of case would have been different as there would have been no grievance of complainant. There is no doubt that complainant as well as her father made several requests to OPs to change the name of complainant and her parents in their record in accordance with the particulars given by them and as per notification given by them in Gazette of India. At that time when complainant approached OPs with request to change her name alongwith name of her parents and supplied requisite documents and completed all formalities as per their recommendations, OPs should have made correction keeping in view the previous certificates, adhar card of complainant and per notice given by father of complainant in newspaper and Gazette of India. Hence, in these circumstances, we are of the considered opinion that act of OPs in not rectifying their own record amounts to deficiency in service and unfair trade practice.

14                                            In the light of above discussion, complaint in hand is hereby allowed. OPs are ordered to change the name of complainant from Ekta to Ekta Bholewasi, name of mother of complainant be changed from Sudesh to Sudesh Rani and name of father of complainant be recorded and changed from Rakesh to Rakesh Kumar. The OP-2 is directed to forward the application of complainant for the change of  her name alongwith names of her parents alongwith relevant documents i.e copy

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of Admission Form, copy of School Leaving Certificate, copy of folio of Admission and Withdrawal Register of the school regarding entry of name of complainant duly attested by the Head of concerned institute, Adhar Cards of complainant and her parents and other documents duly required for the correction to OP-3. 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: 24.04.2019

 

                                         (Param Pal Kaur)                   (Ajit Aggarwal)

Member                                      President