Justice Pritam Pal, President 1. This appeal by complainants for enhancement of compensation is directed against the order dated 3.2.2010 passed by District Consumer Forum-I, U.T. Chandigarh whereby his complaint bearing No.1373 of 2009 was allowed in the following terms; “The OP is directed to overhaul the entire account of the complainant and charge interest @11.25% with effect from May, 2007 till the payment was made by the complainant. They are directed to refund the excess amount received by them and also refund Rs.28,958.42P recovered from the complainant as foreclosure charges. The OP shall pay the aforesaid amount alongwith litigation charges of Rs.5,000/- within 30 days from the receipt of the copy of this order failing which it would be liable to pay penal interest @12% on the above amount with effect from 9th August, 2008, till the amount is actually paid to the complainant.” 2. The parties hereinafter shall be referred to as per their status before the District Consumer Forum. 3. Briefly stated the facts of the complaint are that attracted by the advertisements on internet, newspaper etc. of lower rate of interest offered by the OP, the complainants took a loan of Rs.13,00,000/- from the OP against H.No.136, Govind Vihar, Baltana, NAC Zirakpur which was insured by the ICICI agent and the loan amount was revised to Rs.13,37,180/-. Interest was agreed @7.25% in November 2005 but the same was subsequently revised time and again by the OP arbitrarily. Even the number of installments were revised from 240 in November 2005 to 386 in August 2008 which badly affected the financial condition of the complainants and finally they decided to transfer the loan from OP bank to Indian Bank. However, they were surprised when the OP bank asked them to deposit Rs.13,06,415/- in spite of paying Rs.3,90,493/- in 30 installments without any break. The OP also even arbitrarily charged ‘foreclosure charges’ of Rs.28,958/- which were never agreed. Hence, alleging deficiency in service and unfair trade practice on the part of OP, complainant filed complaint before the District Forum . 4. On the other hand, OP contested the complaint and in its written reply submitted that the insurance of the property was done with another company. It was pleaded that the rate of interest and other charges as applicable were offered to the complainants which were accepted by them. The rate of interest was dependent upon FRR and on account of change in FRR the rate applicable to the complainants was also changed and no excess amount was taken from them. It was further pleaded that a special scheme offered at a particular period of time did not entitle the complainants to the benefits of the same and on account of change in the rates of interest it was necessary to change the payment period also otherwise the installment payable was to be exceeded the capacity of the complainants to pay the same. Pleading that there was no deficiency in service on its part, a prayer was made for dismissal of the case. 5. The District Consumer Forum after going through the evidence and hearing the complainant as well as counsel for OP allowed the complaint as indicated in the opening part of this judgment. Still dissatisfied, complainant has come up in this appeal. 6. When the case was fixed for arguments, none appeared on behalf of the respondent. We have heard the appellant/complainant and perused the record. The only noticeable point of arguments raised on behalf of the complainant is that he has not been compensated with regard to the amount which he had paid for obtaining insurance policy and also expenses of Rs.7490/- incurred on account of processing fee for loan from the Indian Bank and other miscellaneous expenses. To our mind, complainants are not entitled to the amount of Rs.12000/- which they had paid for obtaining insurance coverage for the house in question because the house remained insured for the period the loan amount was used by the complainants. However, because of differences with OP, complainants had to apply for loan from another bank and in that process they must have suffered mental any physical harassment besides incurring process fee and other miscellaneous expenses for taking the loan. So, on all these counts, we feel that learned District Forum should have also granted atleast lumpsum amount of Rs.10,000/- as compensation. Thus, it is ordered that besides the relief already granted by the District Forum, complainants will be entitled to another amount of Rs.10,000/- on account of compensation. In the result, this appeal succeeds in the aforesaid terms. Certified Copies of this order be sent to the parties, free of charge. The file be consigned to record room.
| | HON'BLE MRS. MRS. NEENA SANDHU, MEMBER | HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE PRITAM PAL, PRESIDENT | , | |
