| Final Order / Judgement | DISTRICT CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL COMMISSION, BATHINDA C.C. No. 311 of 22-11-2019 Decided on : 26-08-2021 Gurjeet Singh Khadial, Advocate aged about 47 years S/o Sh. Gurbax Singh Khadial, Advocate, R/o Kothi No. 192-A/14 (22407), Shant Nagar, Bathinda (Punjab) ........Complainant Versus Magic Holidays Panoramic Group, Khatau House, Basement, Plot No. 401/411, Mogul Lane, Behind Johnson & Johnson Mahim (W), Mumbai through its Director Vidyaa Sudhir Vidyaa Sudhir Director of Magic Holidays Panoramic Group, Khatau House, Basement, Plot No. 401/411, Mogul Lane, Behind Johnson & Johnson Mahim (W) Mumbai.(deleted vide order dated 27-11-2019) .......Opposite parties
Complaint under Section 12 of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 QUORUM Kanwar Sandeep Singh, President. Smt. Sukhwinder Kaur, Member. Present For the complainant : Sh. Rohit Jain, Advocate. For opposite parties : OP No. 1 exparte OP No. 2 deleted. ORDER Kanwar Sandeep Singh, President The complainant Gurjeet Singh Khadial (here-in-after referred to as complainant) has filed this complaint U/s 12 of Consumer Protection Act, 1986 (Now C.P. Act, 2019, here-in after referred to as 'Act') before this Forum (Now Commission) against Magic Holidays Panoramic Group and another (here-in-after referred to as opposite parties). Briefly stated, the case of the complainant is that opposite parties contacted the complainant at Bathinda regarding various services and tour packages provided by their group. The complainant told opposite parties that being an Advocate, he can go for holidays only in the month of June and December i.e. judicial holidays. The opposite parties promised to accommodate and assured that best national and international destinations and four/five star services will be offered. Being allured, the complainant opted for the membership of group of the opposite parties at Bathinda and paid total amount of Rs. 2,15,000/- in cash in advance and gained membership No. FD/CDG/01277. The said Magic Holidays Plan Tenure was for 25 years starting from 29.6.2017 with total 100 nights package. It is alleged that thereafter complainant contacted the opposite parties from time to time regarding his need of tour dates as promised but they did not pay any heed to him. After getting the said membership amount, the complainant was never attended by the opposite partes and no destination was offered as promised and no services were ever provided by them. Under forced circumstances, the complainant visited the desired destinations at his own cost and at exorbitant market rates. The oral promises made by the opposite parties and even confirmed vide letter dated 14-7-2017 were totally false. It has caused him physical, mental and financial loss and has disturbed his entire prelanned programms. The complainant has further alleged that he got issued legal notice on 6-8-2019 and informed the opposite parties that he does not want to continue his membership and demanded refund of his entire amount alongwith interest and damages, but the said notice was never replied by them meaning thereby that they have admitted their deficient service and unfair trade practice. On this backdrop of facts, the complainant has filed this complaint seeking directions to the opposite parties to refund original amount of Rs. 2,15,000/- aongwith interest at the prevailing market rate and pay him compensation to the tune of Rs. 10.00 Lacs in addition to Rs. 22,000/- as cost. In view of statement suffered by learned counsel for complainant, name of opposite party No. 2 was deleted from the array of the opposite parties. Notice of complaint was sent to opposite party No. 1 through registered A.D. post, but none appeared on its behalf. As such, exparte proceedings were taken against opposite party No. 1. Complainant led exparte evidence. In support of his version, complainant tendered into evidence photocopy of letter (Ex. C-1), photocopies of passports (Ex. C-2 to Ex. C-12), photocopy of legal notice and postal receipt (Ex. C-13 & Ex. C-14) and affidavit dated 18-11-2019 of complainant. We have heard learned counsel for complainant and gone through the file carefully. The submission of learned counsel for the complainant is that the opposite parties contacted the complainant at Bathinda regarding various services and tour packages provided by their group. The complainant told opposite parties that being an Advocate, he can go for holidays only in the month of June and December i.e. judicial holidays. The opposite parties promised to accommodate and assured that best national and international destinations and four/five star services will be offered. They orally introduced to provide various benefits to complainant and his family on becoming member of their group. Being allured by their false promises, complainant became member of Magic Holidays Plan of the opposite parties and paid Rs. 2,15,000/- in cash. A letter dated 14-7-2017 (Ex. C-1) was issued by the opposite parties confirming membership of complainant. The plan was for 25 years starting from 29-6-2017 with total 100 night package. Ex. C-1 also finds mentioned that “we wish to confirm some important details provided by you at the time of enrolment.”. Thereafter, opposite parties kept mum and never sent any tour package offer to complainant despite his repeated telephone calls/requests to them. Photocopies of Passports (Ex. C-2 to Ex. C-12) prove that complainant and his family visited desired destinations at their own cost. After waiting for offer for long period, he got issued legal notice for refund of his paid amount, but the opposite parties neither replied nor refunded his money. This act of the opposite parties itself shows deficient service on their part. We have given careful consideration to these submissions of learned counsel for complainant and gone through the record. To prove his case, the complainant has placed on file a letter dated 14-7-2017 issued by opposite party No. 1 vide which complainant was allotted membership No. FM/EDG/0177 of Magic Holidays Plan. The tenure of plan has been shown as 25 years and package for total 100 nights. Name of Scheme was Flexi Magic-Reg-White-Studio-May, 2017 and Enrolment date 29-6-1017. Payment details shown as Down Payment Rs. 2,15,000/- and mode of payment as “cash”. The grudge of the complainant is that his Enrolment date as member of holidays plan was 29-6-2017 but till date not even a single tour package offer was made by the opposite parties. The complainant has pleaded in his complaint that at the time of enrolment, he requested the opposite parties that being an advocate, he can plan destinations only in June and December every year being judicial holidays and Ex. C-1 also confirms this fact. Further, this fact is also proved by the copies of passports of complainant and his family (Ex. C-2 to Ex. C-12) that various places have been visited by them in the month of June/July and December. The complainant visited his desired destinations at his own. The pre-planned programms of complainant must have been disturbed due to this illegal act of the opposite party No. 1. The complainant was not offered any plan/tour since the date of enrolment i.e. 29-6-2017 even after lapse of more than 2 years then there is no logic to sit quite and wait for offer,s keeping in mind that holidays package/plan is for 25 years. Such practices adopted by some holiday package offering groups destroys the image of good reputed groups and creats doubt in the mind of general public. The opposite party No. 1 was duty bound to offer tour package to complainant as per committment made vide enrollment letter Ex. C-1 which has not been done till date due to which, complainant suffered mental, physical harassment as well as financial loss. The opposite party No. 1 not even sent reply to the legal notice served by complainant. The opposite party also failed to appear before this Commission to rebut the version/evidence of complainant. Thus, this act of opposite party No.1 amounts to deficiency in service and unfair trade practice. Resultantly, this complaint is partly allowed against opposite party No. 1 with Rs. 5,000/- as cost and compensation. The opposite party No. 1 is further directed to refund to complainant Rs. 2,15,000/- (Two lacs fifteen thousand only) with interest @ 9% from the date of deposit till payment. The compliance of this order be made by opposite party No. 1 within 45 days from the date of receipt of copy of this order. The complaint could not be decided within the statutory period due to heavy pendency of cases and vacancy of post of members. Copy of order be sent to the parties concerned free of cost and file be consigned to the record. Announced:- 26-08-2021 (Kanwar Sandeep Singh) President (Sukhwinder Kaur) Member
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