Punjab

Faridkot

CC/18/4

Anandpal Singh - Complainant(s)

Versus

Improvement Trust - Opp.Party(s)

Atul Gupta

07 Jan 2019

ORDER

DISTRICT CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL FORUM, FARIDKOT

 

Complaint No. :        04

Date of Institution:    03.01.2018

Date of Decision :      7.01.2019

1. Anandpal Singh aged about 45 years,
2. Amritpal Singh Brar aged about 42 years,

Both sons of Darshan Singh r/o Preet Nagar, Machaki Mal Singh Road, Faridkot.                

                                                  .......Complainant

Versus

1. Improvement Trust, Faridkot through its Chairman, Office at Giani Zail Singh Market, Faridkot.
2. Improvement Trust, Faridkot through its Executive Officer, Office at Giani Zail Singh Market, Faridkot.                                   

            ....OPs

           Complaint under Section 12 of the

Consumer Protection Act, 1986.

 

Quorum:     Sh Ajit Aggarwal, President,

Sh Param Pal Kaur, Member.

 

Present:      Sh  Atul Gupta, Ld Counsel for complainant,    

                  Sh Iqbal Kaushal, Ld Counsel for OPs.

 

ORDER

(Ajit Aggarwal, President)

                                        Complainant has filed the present complaint under Section 12 of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 against OPs seeking directions to OPs to transfer SCO No.17 in Giani Zail Singh Market, Faridkot in the name of complainants and to pay Rs.2,00,000/- as compensation for mental agony and harassment and financial loss to complainant besides litigation expenses of Rs.22,000/-.

2                                            Briefly stated, the case of the complainant is that SCO No.17 situated in Giani Zail Singh Market was allotted to Smt Rajinder Kaur, Darshan Singh and complainant no.1 and all the instalments have been paid by them to OPs. It is submitted that on 28.09.2013, Smt. Rajinder Kaur mother of complainants died and during her life time, she executed a registered will dated 28.05.2013 bequeathing her entire moveable and immoveable property and present SCO in favour of complainants. After her death, complainant approached OPs and submitted an application alongwith her death certificate requesting OPs to transfer the ownership of property to the extent of share of Smt Rajinder Kaur in their favour, but till date, OPs have not done anything needful. Complainants again submitted their written request to OPs vide letter dated 14.06.2017, but OPs issued them letters dated 15.06.2017 and 23.06.2017 alongwith copy of Punjab Government Gazette Notification dt 30.06.2016 demanding complainants to deposit Rs.30,000/-with them for transferring property in their name. It is further submitted that conditions of Gazette Notification do not apply to complainants as no Conveyance Deed is executed in the name of original allottees or in favour of anybody else and therefore, they are not liable to make payment of Rs.30,000/-to OPs as demanded by them. This action of OPs in not transferring the share of late smt Rajinder Kaur in the name of complainants, amounts to deficiency in service and trade mal practice on the part of OPs and it has caused harassment and mental agony to them. They have prayed for accepting the present complaint alongwith compensation and litigation expenses besides main relief. Hence, the  present complaint.

3                                           The Counsel for complainant was heard with regard to admission of the complaint and vide order dated 10.01.2018, complaint was admitted and notice was ordered to be issued to the opposite party.

4                                           On receipt of notice, OPs appeared in Forum through Counsel and filed reply wherein asserted present complaint is not maintainable as complainants are not the consumers of answering OPs. On merits  they have denied all the allegations of complainant being wrong and incorrect and asserted that plot in question was purchased by Smt Rajinder Kaur, Darshan Singh and complainant no.1 in open auction. Ops admitted that complainants moved an application for changing ownership of Smt Rajinder Kaur in their names and after going through the instructions and rules issued by department of Local Government, Punjab vide Gazette Notification dated 30.06.2016, OPs issued notice to complainants to deposit Rs.30,000/-as Transfer Fee. It is further averred that vide this notification dt 30.06.2016, Transfer Fee of commercial property i.e for shop cum office, shop cum flat or sites of any other categories is Rs.30,000/- and as such, complainants are liable to pay the requisite fee for transfer of share of shop cum flat in their names. All the other allegations levelled by complainant are denied being wrong and incorrect and further averred that as per rules of notification dated 30.06.2016, complainants are bound to deposit Rs.30,000/-as Transfer Fee for getting the ownership in their names. It is reiterated that there is no deficiency in service on the part of OPs and prayed for dismissal of complaint with costs.

5                                        Parties were given proper opportunities to prove their respective case. Ld counsel for complainant tendered in evidence affidavit of complainant as Ex C-1 and documents Ex C-2 to 17 and closed the same.

6                                   In order to rebut the evidence of the complainant, ld Counsel for OPs tendered in evidence affidavit of Gobind Kumar as Ex OP-1 and documents Ex OP-2 to 15 and then, closed the evidence.

7                                          We have heard the learned counsel for the parties and have very carefully gone through the affidavits and documents placed on the file.

8                                          Ld Counsel for complainant has argued that SCO No.17 situated in Giani Zail Singh Market was allotted to Smt Rajinder Kaur, Darshan Singh and complainant no.1 and all the instalments have been paid by them to OPs. On 28.09.2013, Smt. Rajinder Kaur mother of complainants died and during her life time, she executed a registered will date 28.05.2013 bequeathing her entire moveable and immoveable property and present SCO in favour of complainants. Thereafter, complainants approached OPs and submitted an application alongwith her death certificate requesting OPs to transfer the ownership of property to the extent of share of Smt Rajinder Kaur in their favour, but till date, OPs have not done anything needful. Vide letter dated 14.06.2017, complainants again requested them to change the ownership in their name, but instead of transferring said SCO in their name, OPs issued letters dated 15.06.2017 and 23.06.2017 and demanded Rs.30,000/-for transferring property in their name as per gazette notification dt 30.06.2016. It is further submitted that conditions of Gazette Notification do not apply to them as no Conveyance Deed is executed in the name of original allottees or in favour of anybody else and therefore, complainants are not liable to make payment of Rs.30,000/- to OPs as demanded by them. Action of OPs in not transferring the share of late smt Rajinder Kaur in the name of complainants, amounts to deficiency in service and it has caused harassment to them. Prayer for accepting the present complaint is made and stressed on documents Ex C-1 to C17.

9                                       Ld Counsel for OPs argued that complaint filed by complainants is not maintainable as complainants are not their consumers. OPs have denied all the allegations of complainant being wrong and incorrect and averred that plot in question was purchased by Smt Rajinder Kaur, Darshan Singh and complainant no.1 in open auction. It is admitted that complainants gave an application for changing ownership of Smt Rajinder Kaur in their names and after going through the instructions given in Gazette Notification dated 30.06.2016, they issued notice to complainants to deposit Rs.30,000/-as Transfer Fee. As per notification dt 30.06.2016, Transfer Fee of commercial property i.e for shop cum office, shop cum flat or sites of any other categories is Rs.30,000/- and as such, complainants are liable to pay the requisite fee for transfer of share of property in their names. All the other allegations are denied being incorrect and averred that as per rules of notification dated 30.06.2016, complainants are bound to deposit Transfer Fee of Rs.30,000/-for obtaining the ownership in their names. It is reiterated that there is no deficiency in service on the part of OPs and prayed for dismissal of complaint.

10                                               From the careful perusal of record and documents placed on record by respective parties, it is observed that case of complainant is that SCO no.17 was allotted to the mother of complainants, one Darshan Singh and in the name of complainant no.1. Mother of complainants died and before death, she executed a registered will wherein she bequeathed all her moveable and immovable property in the name of complainants. After her death, complainants approached OPs and requested them to change the ownership in the name of OPs but they demanded Rs.30,000/-from them for this purpose vide letters dated 15.06.2017 and 23.06.2017 as per gazetted notification dated 30.06.2016. As per ld counsel for complainants, conditions of this notification are not applicable in present case as no Conveyance Deed has been executed in the name of original allottees. Therefore, demand raised by Ops for Rs.30,000/-is illegal and does not seem appropriate. On the other hand plea taken by Ops is that as per notification dt 30.06.2016, Transfer Fee of commercial property i.e for shop cum office, shop cum flat or sites of any category is Rs.30,000/- and as such, complainants are liable to pay the requisite fee for transfer of share of property in their names. OPs have denied other allegations being incorrect and stress that as per rules of notification dated 30.06.2016, complainants are bound to deposit Transfer Fee of Rs.30,000/-for procuring the ownership in their names.

11                                    Complainants have relied upon receipts Ex C-2 to Ex C-7 which prove that payment for said plot has been made to OPs. Ex C-8 clears the pleadings of complainant that plot in question was allotted in the name of complainant no.1, Darshan Singh and late Smt Rajinder Kaur. Ex C-9 is letter written by complainant Anandpal Singh to Executive Officer, Improvement Trust, Faridkot requesting them to transfer the plot in question in the name of complainants. Ex C-10 is the copy of death certificate issued by Health & Family Welfare Department Chief Registrar, Births & Deaths showing the death of Smt Rajinder Kaur, who was the mother of complainants. Authenticity of document Ex C-11 i.e copy of registered will made by late Smt Rajinder Kaur during her life time in favour of complainants, is beyond doubt. It is observed that as per clause (4) of Punjab Government Gazette Extraordinary dated 30.06.2016, the allottee may get the property transferred in the name of his family members (which means spouse, children and parents) by paying the Transfer Fee as specified in the table, which means if any allottee voluntarily transfers his property in the name of  his family members then, he is required to pay the transfer fee as specified in the notification but in the present case, the property is not transferred by any allottee in favour of his family members, rather it is transfer of inheritance after the death of original allottee in favour of her legal heirs. By way of transfer, the complainants come into the place of their deceased mother in the record of OPs by way of inheritance and in this case, the allottee has not transferred her property in the name of her family members. So, the OPs cannot demand the alleged Transfer Fee from the complainants for transferring the share of their deceased mother in their names. Thus, action of OPs for forcing complainants to deposit Rs.30,000/-on account of Transfer Fee is totally wrong. There is no reason to disbelief that pleadings of complainants are true and their grievance is not redressed by OPs.

12                       In the light of above discussion, this Forum is of considered opinion that complainants have succeeded in proving their case. Therefore, present complaint is hereby allowed. OPs are directed to withdraw the impugned demand of Rs.30,000/-raised by them on account of Transfer Fee and are ordered to transfer the ownership of plot no.17 in question in the name of complainants subject to the extent of share of lat Smt. Rajinder Kaur in property within 30 days of receipt of the copy of the order. Compliance of this order be made within prescribed period, failing which complainant shall be entitled to initiate proceedings under Section 25 and 27 of Consumer Protection Act. Copy of the order be supplied to parties free of cost as per law. File be consigned to the record room. 

Announced in Open Forum

Dated : 7.01.2019

 

            Member                                             President                                                          (Param Pal Kaur)           (Ajit Aggarwal)