Orissa

Cuttak

CC/92/2014

Tilottama Sahoo,President - Complainant(s)

Versus

Director,Regional Plant Resource Centre - Opp.Party(s)

R B Das

05 Nov 2016

ORDER

IN THE COURT OF THE DIST. CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL FORUM,CUTTACK.

C.C No.92/2014

 

1.         President, Tilottama  Sahoo,

Biraja SHG,of Vill:Dhanurjaypur,

PO:Bentapada,P.S:Athagarh,Dist:Cuttack.

 

2.         Smt. Tillottama Sahoo,

D/O:Gopinath Saho,

Vill:Dhanurjaypur,PO:Bentapada,

P.S:Athagarh,Dist:Cuttack.                                                     … Complainants.

 

Vrs.

1.         Director,

Regional Plant Resource Centre,

                  At/PO/Ps Nayapalli,Bhubaneswar

Dist:Khurda

​

2.        Asst. Director of Horticulture,

At/PO/PS:Athagarh,Dist:Cuttack.                                           … Opp. Parties.

 

Present:               Sri Dhruba Charan Barik,President.

Sri Bichitrananda Tripathy, Member.

Smt. Sarmistha Nath, Member (W).

 

Date of filing:   11.06.2014.

Date of Order:  05.11.2016

 

For the complainant :    Mr. R.B.Das,Advocate & Associates.

For the O.Ps.                 : Mr. N.N.Satpathy,Adv. & Associates.

 

Smt. Sarmistha Nath,Member(W).

 

                The complainant being a consumer has filed this complaint before this Forum against the O.Ps for Redressal of her grievance under the Consumer Protection Act,1986(Act in short) in terms of her prayer made in the complaint petition.  The allegation made in the complaint is with regard to defects in the goods purchased by her and deficiency in service provided and unfair trade practice adopted by the O.Ps.

1. The facts of the complainant’s case stated in brief is that the complainant No.1 namely Biraja Self Help Group is an organization of Village:Dhjanurjaypur,P.O/P.S:Athagarh,Dist:Cuttack ahd complainant No.2: Tilottama Sahoo represented as President of above noted S.H.G.  The members of the said SHG decided to undertake some agricultural activities and other social activities which have been sponsored by the Govt. from time to time.  They decided to take up ‘Banana’ plantation and submitted application under NHM scheme programme 2011-12 before competent authority along with land documents and the complaint on the basis of an easy loan which was granted by the Block office for an amount of Rs.2,57,000/- for agricultural purpose through UCO Bank,Athagarh invested the loan amount granted by the Block office for the purpose of Banana Plantation by developing Land and purchasing seeds, chemicals, medicines etc.
2. Tilottama Sahoo,President of said SHG has submitted application for said banana plantation on Khata No.55,160/54, vide plot No.332,400,172 belongs to her grandfather for the purpose.
3. The complainant also purchased the banana plantlets from O.P No.1 through Horticulturist Rabinarayan Sahoo of Athagarh vide cash receipt No.10210 dt.02.07.2011.
4. On the instruction of O.P. No.2, the complainant applied for  Neem Cake, compost and chemical fertilizer from time to time, and have invested above Rs.2,00,000/- but the banana plantlets supplied by the O.P No.1 produced no fruits though the growth of the banana plants were good and proper.
5. The complainant had informed the above fact to the O.P No.1 and requested for verification of this fact by the competent authority and informed to the Manager,UCO Bank,Athagarh to take necessary steps for waiver of the loan amount availed for this purpose and complainant also intimated to Deputy Collector.
6. The Asst. Horticulture Officer,Athagarh has made verification and send letter to O.P No.2 which reveals that the beneficiary harvested 15 to 20 Nos. of bunches and rest have no good timing and bunches have come out with flowering.  The fingers in upper two rows are small and the beneficiary demanded for scientific verification and demanded compensation.
7. As per instruction of Deputy Director of Horticulture, Cuttack a team comprising of members of A.D.H,Cuttack,A.D.,Athagarh,S.M.S,Horticulture, A.H.O,Athagarh undertook field visit to Athagarh area on 11.7.13 to assess the reason of non-fruiting of banana crop taken up on the field of Smt. Tilootama Sahoo of Dhanurjayapur village.

It is further submitted that after joint verification of the team they have observed that the plants have attended normal growth, flowering and bunch initiation is normal but it is not being converted into fruits and finally the team arrived at a conclusion that there might be some protocol error in production of plantlets and the plantlets might be ‘off type’ ones.

After joint verification, O.P.2 informed the Director, Regional Plant Resources Centre, O.P.No.1 about the joint verification report and requested him for necessary enquiry and pay compensation towards loss.  The O.P No.1 without making any enquiry intimated the O.P No.2 that duration of the crop is limited to one year and in the meanwhile two years time has elapsed as such the verification of crop after two years will yield no result.

The counsel for the complainant further submitted that the member of the SHG group who are BPL card holders suffered financial loss due to supply of defective tissues and in spite of several request and demand, the O.Ps neither made any spot enquiry nor sanctioned compensation.  So the complainants have suffered mental and physical agony due to illegal and arbitrary action of the O.P and claimed compensation of Rs.3,50,000/-.

The O.Ps entered their appearance and filed a petition U/S-26 of the Consumer Protection Act to dismiss the complaint awarding a cost of Rs.10,000/- and also filed written version raising the question of “Locus standi” of the complainant on the ground that the complainants have never purchased plantlets from the O.Ps and they are not consumers as defined U/S 2(1)(d) of Consumer Protection Act.

                Heard the advocates of the parties, we have a gone through the pleadings of the parties in details and perused the documents/papers.  It is revealed from Annex-4 of the complaint petition that one Rabi Narayan Sahoo has purchased the Banana tissues and not the complainants.  Sri Rabi Narayan Sahoo is neither the President nor the Secretary of the said SHG, also not a member of the said SHG; as such Sri Rabi Narayan Sahoo is not related to the above SHG in any way.  Since the complainants have not purchased the banana tissues from the O.Ps, no Locus standi to file the complaint.

                                                                                ORDER

                The complainants have no Locus standi to file the complaint. Hence the case is dismissed.

Typed to dictation, corrected and pronounced by the Hon’ble Member in the Open Court on this the 5^th  day of November, 2016 under the seal and signature of this Forum.

 

                                     ( Smt. Sarmistha Nath )

                                            Member(W)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           (  Sri D.C.Barik)

                                                                                                                                     President.

                                                                                                                        (Sri B.N.Tripathy )

                                                                                                                                 Member