Jammu and Kashmir

Jammu

CC/375/2017

TAJINDER PALOSINGH - Complainant(s)

Versus

IDP EDUCATION PVT. LTD. - Opp.Party(s)

ANIL BILORIA

10 Mar 2018

ORDER

              DISTRICTCONSUMERDISPUTES REDRESSAL FORUM,JAMMU

      (Constituted under J&K Consumer Protection Act,1987)

   Case File No.                 174/DFJ                

 Date of  Institution    03-08-2016              

 Date of Decision        21-02-2018

 

Mr.Tajinder Pal Singh,

S/O Mr.Jasbir Singh,

R/O H.No.26,Sector-12,

Nanak Nagar,Jammu-180004.

                                                                                                                    Complainant

                 V/S

1.IDP Education India Private Limited,

6^th Floor,Plot No.32,Global Business Square,

Sector 44,Gurgaon,1220003,Haryana,India.

2.Harmeet Singh Pental(Director)

IDP Education India Private Limited,

6^th Floor,Plot No.32,Global Business Square,

Sector 44,Gurgaon,1220003,Haryana,India.

3.Mr.Bhavesh Jain(CFO)

IDP Education India Private Limited,

6^th Floor,Plot No.32,Global Business Square,

Sector 44,Gurgaon,1220003,Haryana,India.

4.Mr.Dharam Naik(Destination Head)

IDP Education India Private Limited,

6^th Floor,Plot No.32,Global Business Square,

Sector 44,Gurgaon,1220003,Haryana,India.

5.Mr.Piyush Kumar(Director)

IDP Education India Private Limited,

6^th Floor,Plot No.32,Global Business Square,

Sector 44,Gurgaon,1220003,Haryana,India.

6.Ms.Monika Khera(Head HR)

IDP Education India Private Limited,

6^th Floor,Plot No.32,Global Business Square,

Sector 44,Gurgaon,1220003,Haryana,India.

                                                                                                                                    Opposite parties

CORAM

                  Khalil Choudhary    (Distt.& Sessions Judge)  President

                  Ms.Vijay Angral                                                  Member

                  Mr.Ghulam Sarwar                                             Member.

 

In the matter of Complaint under section 10 of J&K Consumer

                              Protection Act 1987.

 

M/S.Anil Biloria & Associates Advocates, for complainant, present.

Mr.Tahir Nizami,Advocate for OPs, present.

 

ORDER

                               Complainant moved before this Forum on account of un-fair trade practice and deficiency in service on the part of opposite parties (For short OP),in that, grievance of complainant is that he is in the process of obtaining Visa for immigration and one of the pre-requisite for applying of said Visa is to clear International English Language testing system having four Modules to be cleared with minimum bench marks and the complainant has applied for appearing in said test, conducted by OP,by paying a fee of Rs.10,900/-through online payment by using his credit card, copy of email dated 17-01-2016 is annexed as Annexure-C1.That complainant was called to appear in the said test on,05-03-2016 and 09-03-2016 at Hotel Meridian Palace,Opp.Shakuntla Cinema,New Rehari Road,Jammu,but complainant was not satisfied with the test conducted on,05-03-2016 and he has three grievances against OP company which were not redressed till date and are reproduced as under

    a.Firstly.the behavior and attitude of one of OPs staff member was very rude and shocking. His behavior towards him was totally negative and unprofessional. Complainant is an experienced person having experience of more than 10 years in one of the esteemed organization of our country and he is commanding a very respectable position in said organization within J&K State. The staff member of Ops organization treated complainant like a beggar as if he had come to him and asking for money. Complainant does not know his name but at the time of registration, biometrics and documents verification, he is the concerned person who had verified complainant’s details and took his photograph and biometrics.

b.Secondly,before the time of start of listening test, one of the staff member of OP organization announced that candidates shall check their headphones and if anybody having any problem, can raise his/their concerns so that it will be rectified. Complainant had raised the concern that he is having problem with headphones provided for taking test. The same staff member who had misbehaved with complainant came to check what the problem was? Complainant had described his problem that the headphones are not sticking on his head, the adjustment of these headphones is not sufficient for a turban wearing Sikh i.e.complainant.He said very arrogantly that we had these headphones only,OP had to use these headphones to give the test else leave the exam. Complainant was surprised after seeing the unprofessional attitude and way of talking of that staff member who had to be polite and humble to resolve his problem. Complainant had not expected such type of bad behavior from IDP staff member.

c.Complainant was threatened with unethical activities and he was forced to take the test with same unsuitable problematic headphones as the threat to get disqualify was looming over his head and moreover he was holding that power to do so. Each and every time complainant had to hold the headphones with his hands to listen the played recording to complete his test. Complainant was in a state of stress/strain and due to such unexpected and uncalled mental harassment by respondent staff, his tests had not been given in a fair and free environment where he could have fairly secured marks as per his ability and competence and therefore the test was not given to complainant in standard and satisfactory conditions which could have brought out expected results in standard conditions only.

d.Moreover,two times the recording played for listening test was stopped due to unknown electronic problem in OP equipment. Some of the candidates had raised the concern regarding such issue, but as a matter of oppression and blackmailing respondent staff member had taken their passports and threatened them that he will disqualify them from the exam.Although,the electricity failure happen twice due to which complainant and other candidates were not able to know what time is left for completion of his/their reading and writing test.

      Complainant further submitted that no one had given or guided him to fill up the complaint/feedback form in the premises, after the exam was over, to address his concern. Nevertheless complainant had raised his concern on OP toll free number 18001024544 on,08-03-2016 at 11.53 am and came to know that he had to fill up the complaint form after exam at the examination center and the staff member has to provide the same, but they had not provided complaint form obviously for hushing up their unethical activities which they had done there. The Op customer service suggests him to raise a complaint through email id provided to him and complainant sent email to OP on the intervening night of 8^th and 9^th March,2016 and in the morning of 09/03-2016,complainant had to appear in the speaking test. It is submitted that customer care service executive on,12-03-2016 spoke in very rude and arrogant manner when complainant enquired about the status of his complaint lodged through email. That as a matter of fact, complainant had paid his hard  earned money as fees, not for keeping quiet on unjustified misbehavior of OP staff and to get mentally harassed and using low quality faulty equipment which was stopped twice due to which complainant’s test of listening was just a formality and nota test in the real sense and spirit and he is completely dissatisfied and shocked and consequently his concentration and comprehension was badly disturbed and same effected his ability and performance in the test with respect to reading and writing test and complainant is fully confident that he can do better than what was done in an hostile and below standard environment of test of International Level. Complainant is well aware of his ability and competence to score high in an environment free of stress and hostile person,i.e.complainant can score in Listening-9,Reading-8.5,Writing-8 and Speaking-9.That again on,09-03-2016 complainant came for appearing in Speaking test and he was again meted out the similar behavior by OP staff member as was done on,05-03-2016,complainant informed OP that at the time of registration, biometrics and documents verification, the same staff member was present in the venue at Room No.201 to verify complainant’s details and took biometrics. But at the time of verifying complainant’s documents for registration of speaking test, it was felt by him that he was before a person having power drunk attitude rather than a trained professional who is courteous and humble with candidates who come to take test after paying the fees and not for free charge. That in a similar unprofessional style and behavior as displayed by said staff member of Ops on,05-03-2016 at exam center at Jammu, complainant’s passport was taken and was directed to go out of the room and when complainant had asked for his passport he replied that complainant had to leave his passport with him. That complainant was very surprised that who has authorized him to take his passport in his custody as a private person which is issued by Indian Government for the purpose of travelling out of country and its custody cannot be taken away by a private person. After 10 minutes the OP called complainant in an uncivilized manner  i.e.he said oye sardar idhar aa,complainant got angry at that time but he control his anger and in a polite manner sought his instructions and he told him to put his finger on the equipment to take the impression. Complainant acted as per instructions given but said staff member continued with his uncivilized manner of addressing complainant which ignited the temper of complainant unbearable level when he said oye tujhe pata nahi hai ke ungli kaise rakhni hai,chal udhar ja aur us taraf se ungli laga.That complainant protested against said similar behaviour and hostile attitude and complainant showed his displeasure with OP staff member and made him aware of expected standard of behaviour.Thereafter,complainant was told to go outside and wait and after 5 minutes, complainant was called with the direction to empty his pockets, and after doing the same he was taken to Room No.202 where the speaking test was to be conducted. That after completion of complainants speaking test on,09/03/2016,complainant had gone to the same roon No.201 for collecting his belongings and the door was open and when complainant sought the permission from the said arrogant staff member to come inside, he suddenly turned back towards complainant and said Sardar sahib tumhe sense nahi hai,tumhara mobile ring kar raha tha,tun ise silent par nahi rakh sakte the.Complainant felt sorry and come out of the room. Constrained by the act of Ops complainant sent legal notice to Ops through his counsel by registered post and asked them to compensate complainant for providing him with desired scores/bands as per his ability and in the absence of same then conduct the said test without charge and by providing the standard equipment and machines. and in reply to legal notice the Ops have not gave satisfactory response to legal notice and this act of Ops constitutes deficiency in service and un fair trade practice. Hence the present complaint. In the final analysis, complainant prays for refund of Rs.10,900/-and in addition also prays for compensation of Rs.8.50 lacs under different heads.

                On the other hand,Ops filed written version and  resisted the complaint on the ground that the present complaint is without any cause of action against the answering OP1-6 and the same is liable to be dismissed. That a bare perusal of present complaint is sufficient to demonstrate that there is no deficiency of service on the part of OPs and the complainant has not come to this Forum with clean hands and has suppressed various material facts and as such the present complaint is liable to be dismissed on the grounds of concealment and suppression of material facts. The Ops further submitted that the Ops have investigated the matter at length and found that due to some technical problem the CD had stopped during Section 3 of the Listening Test. It is further stated that the technicians of OP1 had solved the problem immediately and the said listening test was once again played from Section 3 and was completed without any hindrances. The CD was repeated from the same question where it had stopped, so that no candidate would miss any question. It is important to note that there has been no other complaints whatsoever from any other candidate, who appeared in the same exam at the same time as the complainant, to the answering Respondent No.1-6.The OP conducts the IELTS Test of International standards and it takes all precautions to maintain standards before each and every test is conducted. The answering OP1 provides high quality Uniform and Similar headsets to all the candidates as per the global standards used across India and the same is duly checked properly before the start of every test. The Ops have duly investigated the complaint in relation to the mishaviour by the staff during the test as alleged by the complainant and it was found that during the day of test, the staff/team of the Ops was very much polite with all the candidates throughout the test and no complaints have been received from any other candidates on the day of test. It is further stated that Ops are bound to follow the global guidelines as laid down by the IELTS.Hence there has been no lapse or deficiency on behalf of Ops in rendering the services.

              Complainant adduced evidence by way of duly sworn evidence affidavit and affidavits of Mr.Ripudaman Singh,Gurparkash Singh,Komaldeep Singh, Tanmeet Singh and Aditya Mahajan,respectively.Complainant has placed on record copy of registered letter with A/D,copy of e-mail, copy of legal notice, copy of reply to notice and copies of e-mails.

                          On the other hand,Ops adduced evidence by way of duly sworn evidence affidavit of Jaswinder Singh,Authorised Signatory on behalf of M/S IDFP Education India Pvt.ltd.& Ors.Ops have placed on record copy of extract of meeting of the Board of Directors, Copy of certificate, copy of General Power of Attorney and copies of Track Consignments.

              We have perused case file and heard L/Cs for the parties at length.

                               Before heading further, it would be relevant to take note of Section 9 of Consumer Protection Act,1987(For short Act of 1987),which deals with the jurisdiction of District Forum. Section 9(2) of Act of 1987,deals with territorial jurisdiction of District Forum to entertain the complaint and same provides that complaint shall be instituted in a District Forum within the local limits of whose jurisdiction the Op or each of the Ops actually and voluntarily resides or carries on business. As per section 9(2), complaint can also be instituted in District Forum within the local limits of whose jurisdiction cause of action wholly or partially arise.Therefore,as per mandate of Section of Act  of 1987 a complaint can be instituted in District Forum within the local limits whose jurisdiction either of the Ops resides or carries on business or cause of action wholly or partially arise.

                   Now turning to the relevant facts of case on hand, admittedly, Ops are operating from Gurgaon,Haryana which falls outside the State of Jammu & Kashmir,therefore,complaint on hand is not maintainable before this Forum on both counts,i.e.on account of  resident of OPs or business activities, as well as, no part of cause of action wholly or in part had arisen to complainant within the territorial jurisdiction of this Forum.

                          As we have discussed hereinabove that neither any of the Ops actually and voluntarily resides or carries on business or cause of action, wholly or impart arise within the local limits of this Forum,therefore,in view of settled preposition of law, this Forum lacks jurisdiction to entertain the complaint.

                          As a sequel, to aforesaid discussion, we hold that instant complaint is not maintainable, as this Forum lacks territorial jurisdiction to entertain the complaint, therefore, same is dismissed.However,complainant is at liberty to approach appropriate Forum, if so advised. In the facts and circumstances of the matter parties are left to bear their own costs File after due compilation be consigned to records.

Order per President                                                 (Khalil Choudhary)                               

 

                                                                               (Distt.& Sessions Judge)

                                                                                   President

Announced                                                           District Consumer Forum

21-02-2018                                                              

                                                                                       Jammu.

Agreed by                                                                 

                                                                              

Ms.Vijay Angral          

  Member                                                                                                                                                               

 

Mr.Ghulam Sarwar Chauhan

Member