Complainant Kulwant Singh through the present complaint has sought issuance of direction to the titled opposite parties to return goods or deliver the same to the party or in the alternative be directed to refund price of goods i.e. Rs.17,000/- alongwith interest @ 12%. He has also claimed Rs.50000/- as damages for loss to his business.
- The case of the complainant in brief is that he is owner of a Firm M/s. New Matharu Motor Works, Rajindra Market, Shop No.20, G.T.Road, Batala District Gurdaspur. It was pleaded that he visited the opposite party Branch Office at Batala on 22.1.2015 and got booked one courier containing spare parts weighing 6 Kg to be sent to M/s.Jai Ram Foundary Pvt.Ltd. 5/67 Street No.8, Ananda Nagar Colony, Hafshi Guda Hyderaband (Andhra). The Courier no. is 433842859. The parcel/courier was not delivered to the party and opposite party was not giving any proper reply to his queries regarding non-delivery of the parcel. It is next pleaded that opposite party even abused him badly and have said to him that he can do anything what he wants and refused to entertain his request. Hence this complaint.
3. Complainant tendered into evidence his own affidavit Ex.C1 along with other documents Ex.C2 and Ex.C3 and closed his evidence.
4. Sh.Raj Kumar, Business Associate of the opposite parties tendered into evidence his own affidavit Ex.OP-1 along with documents Ex.OP-2 and Ex.OP-3 and closed the evidence of opposite parties.
5. We have carefully examined all the documents/evidence as available on the complaint records (as duly produced by the litigants) along with the scope of the adverse inference that may be judicially drawn for those ignored to be produced; of course, in the very back-drop of arguments as put forth by the learned counsels for the two sides. We find that the OP1 Courier had duly accepted (vide courier receipt Ex.C2 of 22.01.2015) from the complainant one Parcel containing Hand Tool spare-parts (6 Kg in weight) and details as per the invoice (Ex.C3 of 21.01.2015) for assured and timely (on-time) delivery of the consignment to the (invoice-drawee) addressee at Hyderabad (AP). However, the parcel was delivered at its destination but with an inordinate delay on 08.12.2015 (Ex.OP3) i.e., after almost a full one year and that prompted the present complaint seeking cost and compensation etc. The OP courier service providers have in turn reiterated that the Goods Truck HR-55T-6146 while transporting the parcel-consignment along with the others was ‘checked’ near Jalandhar by the Punjab Sales Tax authorities and levied with an aggregate fine-amount of Rs.57,650/- (for various Tax Lapses) and deposited vide (Ex.OP2) Receipt dated 28.01.2015 and since the complainant refused to reimburse his share (of fine) of Rs.8,500/- (50% of invoice amount) his parcel courier-consignment was stayed back at the OP’s Delhi Hub and finally, from there, the same was delivered at destination on 08.12.2015.
6. We find that the OP courier service providers have ignored to produce any cogent evidence to prove that the complainant ‘drawn’ invoice (Ex.C3) of parcel consignment suffered from any ‘tax’ rules-irregularities i.e., TIN registration etc and in its absence the prime ‘OP allegation’ shall amount to ‘bald’ statement, only. And, moreover, the OP Service Providers should not have accepted the allegedly ‘deficient’ parcel as courier consignment, if it had been really so. The OP couriers being a professional service provider need to accept only the validly ‘transportable’ consignments to avoid subsequent ‘situations’. Further, the plea of ‘commercial purpose’ as put forth by the OP couriers shall not be acceptable as the complainant has not utilized the ‘courier’ service as a regular means of transportation of ‘goods’ but has simply used the service for sending a ‘sample’ consignment, only.
7. Lastly, in the light of the all above, we are of the considered opinion that the OP couriers have indeed bruised the complainant’s consumer rights and as such we partly allow the present complaint and thus ORDER the OP couriers to pay an amount of Rs.10,000/- to the complainant as cost and compensation within 30 days of the receipt of the copy of these orders otherwise the awarded amount shall attract interest @ 9% PA from the date of filing of complaint till actual payment.
8. A copy of the orders be conveyed to the parties as per the provisions of the Act and after compliance, file be consigned to records.
(Naveen Puri)
President.
ANNOUNCED: (Jagdeep Kaur)
May 05, 2016 Member.
*MK*
