In the Court of the
Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, Unit -I, Kolkata,
8B, Nelie Sengupta Sarani, 4th Floor, Kolkata-700087.
CDF/Unit-I/Case No.194/2011.
1) Lila Khan,
114A, LakeGardens, Super Market,
Room No.1/12, Kolkata-45. ---------- Complainant
---Versus---
1) Desire Agro Resorts Development Pvt. Ltd.
P-525, Raja Basanta Roy Road,
Hemanta Mukhopadhyay Sarani, Kolkata-29.
2) Ashok Bose, Managing Director,
Desire Agro Resorts Development Pvt. Ltd.
P-97C, Lake Road, Kolkata-29, P.S.Lake.
3) The Manager,
Desire Agro Resorts Development Pvt. Ltd.
P-85, Lake Road, Kolkata-29. ---------- Opposite Parties
Present : Sri Sankar Nath Das, President.
Dr. Subir Kumar Chaudhuri, Member.
Smt. Samiksha Bhattacharya, Member
Order No. 23 Dated 25-10-2013.
The case of the complainant in short is that o.p. no.1 is a developer to promote and sale of land after development of the said land and also after making change of character of the land in question to the intending purchaser and o.p. no.2 is the Managing Director of o.p. no.1 and o.p. no.3 is the responsible officer of o.p. no.1 who has been engaged to look after the day-to-day affairs of the company.
By virtue of an advertisement of o.ps. the complainant was interested for booking of a piece of land provided by o.ps. for a valuable consideration amount as per proposal of the o.ps. for the purpose of residential use and accordingly contacted with o.ps. on 25.11.06 and o.ps. were agreed to sale and the complainant was agreed to purchase a plot of land measuring 1440 sq.ft. of Booking No.HIGHWAY CLUB GARDEN 247, lying and situated within Mouza-Tardahkapasati, J.L.No.38, P.S. Bhangor, Khatian No.1742, Dag No.193/4533 against the total consideration amount of Rs.1,20,000/- only and the cost of development of the land of Rs.80,000/- only.
By virtue of the said offer and acceptance, the complainant herein for the purpose of purchase of he aforesaid land from the through the o.ps., duly deposited the amount of Rs.53,500/- to the o.ps. as an advance for booking money in respect of the aforesaid land and in terms of the agreement the complainant was to pay the rest of the amount by installments granted by o.ps. time to time for a period of three years and thereafter o.ps. shall handover the possession of the said plot of land by way of sale deed of conveyance in favour of the complainant within the specified period of three years.
Complainant also paid the installment amount on 16.2.07 to o.ps. amounting to Rs.13,500/- and after receiving the said amount o.ps. duly issued the money receipts to the complainant to that effect and thereafter o.ps. prepared the agreement for sale exclusively at their supervision through their appointed ld. advocate and accoridnlgly the agreement for sale dt.21.3.07 has been executed by and between the parties along with the terms and conditions made therein and in the said agreement for sale the complainant was allowed to the plot of land particularly by mentioning the Khatian No. Dag No. and Mouza etc.
After signing of the agreement for sale dt. 21.3.07 the o.ps. also received the amount of Rs.66,400/- from the complainant only on 6.1.09 and issued the money receipt thereto to the complainant and it is hereby mentioned that at the time of signing of the agreement it was clearly stated herein that by the o.ps. that the complainant only has to pay the necessary instalment amount as and when the o.ps. will call for and as such as and when the o.ps. call to the complainant for making payment of the instalment amount the complainant then and there without any further delay paid the instalment amount as asked by the o.ps. and as such there is no intentional latches on the part of the complainant for not making the payment of instalment amount in due time and the assurance of the o.ps. regarding payment of instalment amount as stated above duly complied with by the complainant.
In terms of the agreement for sale as well as the verbal statement of the o.ps., the o.ps. are bound to hand over the possession of the plot of land maximum within three years only after receiving the consideration amount of Rs.1,00,000/- and after delivery of the possession of the land the o.ps. shall develop the said plot of land to become a habitable condition for domestic use but even after expiry of four years the o.ps. failed and neglected to perform their obligation in accordance with the terms and conditions of the agreement, though the complainant time to time personally visited to the o.ps. and also over phone requested to handover the possession of the plot of land but every time the o.ps. taking the different plea avoided to the complainant from his legitimate claim and for which the complainant has been suffered worst.
After 2010 to till the end of the year the complainant number of occasions visited to the o.ps. with a request to deliver of the possession of land by way of sale deed of conveyance in favour of the complainant but every times the o.ps. took time for different plea and lastly in the month of Dec. 2010 the Managing Director of the o.ps. told that the alleged plot of land which the o.ps. assured to the complainant along with the other intending purchasers the same plot of land cannot be handed over due to reason best known to him and advised the complainant to withdraw the deposited amount of the complainant.
Even after surrender of the entire papers and documents in original to the o.ps., the o.ps. intentionally failed and neglected to refund the deposited amount of Rs.1,33,400/- to the complainant and the complainant time to time on a number of occasions personally visited to the o.ps. with a request to refund the heard earned money of the complainant but all are in vain the intention of the o.ps. are otherwise just to deprive the complainant from his legitimate claim and the o.ps. being a giant body of organisation extorting the money of the poor people like the complainant. Hence the case was filed by the complainant with the prayer contained in the petition of complaint.
O.ps. had entered their appearance in this case by filing w/v and denied all the material allegations labeled against them and prayed for dismissal of the case. Ld. lawyer of o.ps. in the course of argument submitted that the case has got no merit and the same is liable to be dismissed.
Decision with reasons:
We have gone through the pleadings of the parties, evidence and documents in particular and we find that despite receipt of the amount o.ps. did not execute and register the deed of conveyance, although complainant paid consideration money for the development of the plot in question.
In the context of the above we find that o.ps. had deficiency in service being service providers to their consumer / complainant and complainant is entitled to relief.
Hence, ordered,
That the case is allowed on contest with cost against the o.ps. O.ps. are jointly and/or severally directed to register the deed of conveyance in respect of the plot in question and the complainant is directed to pay balance amount to o.ps. on the date of registration or the o.ps. are directed to refund Rs.1,33,400/- (Rupees one lakh thirty three thousand four hundred) only towards the amount paid by the complainant to o.ps. That the o.ps. are further directed to pay to the complainant compensation of Rs.20,000/- (Rupees twenty thousand) only for harassment and mental agony and litigation cost of Rs.5000/- (Rupees five thousand) only within 45 days from the date of communication of this order, i.d. an interest @ 10% p.a. shall accrue over the entire sum due to the credit of the complainant till full realization.
