MR. PRAVAT KUMAR PADHI, PRESIDENT:-
This C.C.Case No. 76/2022 has been filed U/s-35 of C.P.Act, 2019 seeking refund of deposited amount of Rs. 4700/- and Rs. 30,000/- for mental agony harassment and Rs. 30,000/- for loss of time & study of 2yrs.
Brief fact of Complainant is that the Complainant deposited a sum of Rs. 4,700/- in IGNOU official account from his A/C No. 1506010219884 through his debit card by mobile phone online on dt. 12.11.2020 for applying the course of BSCG(Bachlor of Science) and on his control no. admission is 202020719845S. The IGNOU cancelled the admission of Complainant on dt. 28.11.2020. As per Rule, IGNOU has to refund the deposited money of Rs. 4700/- to the Complainant’s Account which was deposited by him. IGNOU mailed to Complainant that the admission fees was already refunded back to his Account in Punjab National Bank, Kendrapara, College Branch, Kendrapara. As per the mail and RTI the money was refunded to the Account of Complainant on dt. 30.11.2020, 10.02.21 & 12.05.21. The Complainant also contacted the Bank Manager, PNB, Kendrapara College Branch and printed a copy of his transaction on the above said days, but there was no such transactions made by IGNOU that the Branch Manager told him and gave him a written statement on 20.7.21. Lastly Complainant mailed to IGNOU on dt. 08.08.21 and got the same response from IGNOU in RTI on 26.08.21 that the fee was successfully refunded to your account on dt. 30.11.2020, 10.02.21 & 12.05.21.
Notice to Ops were issued by Regd. Post twice and the Op No.2 in his letter dt. 12.07.2023 in which the OpNo.2 has given reply as under-
“ We have received the following letter dt. 04.07.23i.r.o sh. Ranjit kumar Dash from your office(copy enclosed). However no details of the case/complaint. Enrolment number or programme in which the student had taken admission are available with this letter. In the absence of this details, it is not possible to locate the student from a database of 37 lakhs students”.
The matter relates to only of Rs. 4700/- which the OpNo.2 claims to have been paid to Punjab National Bank, from which the amount was paid vide letter dt. 15.06.21 of OpNo.2 but Complainant claims not to have been received for which the Bank statement has been filed. The Complainant claims to get back the amount due to cancellation of his admission.
The OpNo.3 & 4 Bank are authorities have appeared and there is no evidence regarding refund of the amount by OpNo.2 to Complainant through OpNo.4.
We therefore direct the OpNo.2 to refund Rs.4700/- to Complainant with @6% interest from the date of deposit till date of payment and we also award cost of Rs. 1000/- for mental agony & Rs. 500/- towards cost of litigation. The awarded amount is to be paid by OpNo.2 to Complainant within 45 days from the date of receipt of the order and in case the OpNo.2 has deposited the amount with OpNo.3 & 4 then he/they are liable to pay back the same amount to OpNo.2. If the OpNo.2 fails to pay the amount within the stipulated time then the rate of interest shall be 18% instead of 6% as directed above.
With the aforesaid observation and direction the present C.C.Case No. 24/2022 is hereby allowed and accordingly disposed off.
Issue extract of the order to the parties for compliance.
Pronounced in the open Commission, on this the 5th day of September,2023.
I, agree.
Sd/- Sd/-
MEMBER PRESIDENT
