Punjab

Ludhiana

CC/17/732

Manoj Jain - Complainant(s)

Versus

Make My Trip - Opp.Party(s)

Sahil Jain Adv

26 Nov 2021

ORDER

DISTRICT CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL COMMISSION, LUDHIANA.

                                                Complaint No: 732 dated 09.10.2017                                                         Date of decision: 24.11.2021. 

 

Manoj Jain, aged 37 years son of Sh. Avinandan Jain, resident of Sharman Vatika, House No.E-7, 1471/H, Near Jain Tomhri, Byepass, Shiv Puri, Ludhiana, Punjab.                                                                                                                                                                                      ..…Complainant

                                                Versus

Make My Trip India Pvt. Ltd., DLF Building No.5, Tower C, DLF Cyber City, DLF Phase 2, Sector 25, Gurugram, Pin Code 122002, Haryana.                                                                                                         …..Opposite party

 

Complaint Under Section 12 of the Consumer Protection   Act, 1986.

QUORUM:

SH. K.K. KAREER, PRESIDENT

SH. JASWINDER SINGH, MEMBER

 

COUNSEL FOR THE PARTIES:

For complainant             :         Sh. Sahil jain, Advocate.

For OP                           :         Sh. Mohit Verma, Advocate.

 

ORDER

PER K.K. KAREER, PRESIDENT

1.                Briefly stated, the case of the complainant is that the complainant along with his family intended to visit Mussoorie at Uttrakhand from 13.08.2017 to 15.08.2017. The complainant visited the site of the OP on 22.07.2017 and made a booking of three rooms for six adults and three children vide booking ID-NH7003557011519 and hotel voucher No.21920970 with Ashirwad Hotel & Spa, Mall Road, Mussoorie. The OP sent a confirmation also. The complainant made payment of Rs.22,115/- from the bank account of Vishant Jain. On 13.08.2017, when the complainant reached Mussoorie and showed the confirmation letter to the officials of Ashirwad Hotel, the manager of the hotel namely Indresh Goel feigned ignorance about such reservation. The manager further informed the complainant that the hotel property was blocked 10 months ago by Miss Nikita Bhatia, Area Manager of Makemytrip India Pvt. Ltd. The manager further informed that the hotel had not received any payment qua the booking from the OP. Confronted with the situation, the complainant tried to seek accommodation in some other hotel, but nobody gave the rooms on rent on the spot. As a result, the complainant and his family members and friends had to spend night in the car itself and only on the next morning, they could arrange another hotel by paying Rs.55,000/-. The complainant tried to contact the OP, but they kept lingering on the matter on one pretext or the other. A legal notice dated 24.08.2017 served upon the OP also failed to evoke a positive response from the OP. Hence the complaint whereby it has been requested that the OP be directed to refund the amount of Rs.22,115/- and be also to made to pay the amount of Rs.55,000/- paid by the complainant for arranging another hotel. The OP be further made to pay Rs.4,500/- and Rs.25,000/- as litigation fee as well as Rs.2 Lac for causing mental and physical harassment. 

 

 

2.                The complaint has been resisted by the OP. In the written statement filed on behalf of OP, it has been, inter alia, pleaded that when the complainant was not allowed to check-in by the officials of Ashirwad Hotel, the complainant never brought this to the notice of the OP immediately nor any complaint was lodged. Instead, the complainant preferred to make his own arrangements in an alternative hotel. Thus, there is no deficiency of service on the part of the OP nor the OP has been negligent in any manner. Moreover, in the user agreement executed between the complainant and the OP, it was clearly provided that if he concerned hotel, airlines, transportation provider is unable to honour the confirmed booking due to various reasons like climatic condition, labour unrest, insolvency and technical issues etc.  in those circumstances, if notified in advance, the OP shall make best endeavours to provide similar alternative. Therefore, the OP cannot be held responsible for any deficiency of service. The other allegations made in the complaint have been denied as wrong and in the end, a prayer for dismissal of the complaint has also been made.

3.                In evidence, the complainant submitted his affidavit as Ex. CA, affidavit Ex. CB of Sh. Vishant Jain along with documents Ex. CW1/A to Ex. CW1/D, Ex. CW2/A to Ex. CW2/D as well as Ex. CW3/A and closed the evidence.

4.                On the other hand, the counsel for OP submitted affidavit Ex. RA of Ms. Ankita Mishra, Deputy Manager (Legal) OP along with document Ex.R1 and closed the evidence.

5.                We have heard the counsel for the parties and have gone through the record carefully.

6.                It is not disputed that the complainant made booking for stay of 6 adults and 3 children from 13.08.2017 to 15.08.2017 at Ashirwad Hotel, Mussoorie through the OP and paid Rs.22,115/-. However, the said hotel did not allow the complainant and his family and friends to check-in at the appointed time, instead issued a certificate Ex. CW2/C whereby the reservation was dishonoured on the grounds that the officials of Make My Trip had blocked the concerned hotel 10 months back and has also blocked the payment of Rs.80,000/-. If that was the case, the OP should have informed the complainant in advance. Since no information was given to the complainant that his booking would not be honoured on 13.08.2017 due to some dispute between the OP and the concerned hotel, it resulted in lot of inconvenience and humiliation to the complainant and his family members and they had to fend for themselves in the evening at a hill station despite the fact that they had paid money in advance for stay in the hotel and only on the next day morning, they managed to get accommodation in another hotel by paying hefty sum. This clearly amounts to deficiency of service on the part of the OP.

7.                The plea raised by the OP is that as per user agreement executed between the parties, the OP cannot be held responsible in case the booking is not honoured due to reasons such as climatic condition, labour unrest, insolvency and technical issues etc. However, the reasons mentioned in the letter Ex. CW2/C issued by the official of Ashirwad Hotel do not justify or confirm to the clause referred to by the OP in the user agreement. Even otherwise, such user agreements are one sided agreements and despite the agreement, the fact remains that due to utter negligence on the part of the OP, the complainant was made to suffer along with his family members and friends. Had there been any problem with regard to finality of the hotel booking, least the OP could do was to inform the complainant any time prior to 13.08.2017 so that the complainant could change his scheduled visit. Therefore, the act and conduct of the OP is completely reprehensible and amounts to acute deficiency of service. In the given circumstances, in our considered view, it would be just and proper if the OP is made to refund the booking amount of Rs.22,115/- along with interest @7% from 22.07.2017 till the date of actual payment and be further made to pay Rs.32,885/- spent by the complainant for alternate booking and further pay a composite cost of Rs.20,000/-.

8.                As a result of above discussion, the complaint is allowed with an order that the OP shall refund the amount of Rs.22,115/- along with interest @7% per annum from 22.07.2017 till the date of actual payment. The OP shall further make a payment of Rs.32,885/- spent by the complainant for alternate booking. The OP shall further pay a composite compensation of Rs.20,000/- (Rupees Twenty Thousand only) to the complainant. Compliance of the order be made within 30 days from the date of receipt of copy of order. Copies of the order be supplied to the parties free of costs as per rules. File be indexed and consigned to record room.

9.                Due to rush of work and spread of COVID-19, the case could not be decided within statutory period.

 

                             (Jaswinder Singh)                            (K.K. Kareer)

                    Member                                           President

 

Announced in Open Commission.

Dated:24.11.2021.

Gobind Ram.