By Smt. PREETHI SIVARAMAN.C, MEMBER (President In-Charge)
1. Complainant is a senior citizen and he is representing for other seven senior citizens and they had authorized the complainant to appear before this Commission to conduct this case on their behalf and on behalf of complainant.
2. Case of the complainant is that the complainant and the other persons had planned to go for a tour and opposite party fixed the rate for their travel and other expenses as Rs.67,999/-(Rupees Sixty seven thousand nine hundred and ninety nine only) per person and a total of Rs.5,43,992/-(Rupees Five lakh forty three thousand nine hundred and ninety two only). Opposite party offered and gave assurance that they will provide flight fare, Visa, accommodation , food, entry tickets vehicle for travelling and they also assured the expenses for Taxi taken from Nedumbassery Airport to Wandoor also. As per the agreement, complainant and others had paid the fullamount to opposite party before departure .
3. But opposite party did not provide the amenities that they offered earlier to complainats. The complainant and others even did not know the local language of that foreign country .But a tour guide was not provided to complainant by opposite party.Socomplainant and others missed most of the sceneries and other important places of Singapore. More over all the persons gone for tour were senior citizens and most of them were above seventy years old. They were wandering in that country due to lack of guidance and they can’t even visit most of the places of that country as assured. There after they landed at Nedumbassary Airport and taken a Taxi from there and reached to their house by their own expenses. Hence there is clear deficiency of service from the part of opposite party. Hence this complaint.
4. Notice sent from thisCommission through speed post to opposite partyand it returned “unclaimed”. Hence opposite party was set exparte.
5. In order to substantiate the case of the complainant, he filed an affidavit in lieu of Chief examination and the documents he produced were marked as Ext. A1 to A5. Ext.A1 is the Bank Account Statement of Nilambur Co-operative Urban Bank. Ext. A2 isthe Hotel Billsfor food they have consumed at the Foreign country (10 Nos.). Ext.A3 is the bill regarding the travel expense from Nedumbassery Airport to Wandoor (2Nos.). Ext. A4 is the details of Agreement between complainant and opposite party regarding this Tour programme. Ext.A5 is the Authorisation letter given by other persons to complainant to conduct this case before this Commission on their behalf also.
6. The allegations against oppositeparty is proved by the unchallenged evidence ofcomplainant.Since there was no contra evidence , the case of the complainant has been proved . All the documents produced by complainant also proved his case. More over complainant and other seven persons were senior citizens and most of them were above seventy years old. They suffered a lot. Hence we allow this complaint holding that opposite party is deficient in service.
7. Therefore, we direct the opposite party to return back to complainants Rs. 5,43,992/-(Rupees Five lakh forty three thousand nine hundred and ninety two only) as the amount they had already paid to opposite party as per the agreement and Rs.50,000/- (Rupees Fifty thousand only)as the amount they spent for food, Rs. 9000/-(Rupees Nine thousand only)for transportation from Nedumbassery Airport to Wandoor,Rs.40,000/-(Rupees Forty thousand only) for the mental agony and hardship suffered by them by the act of the opposite party and Rs.10,000/-(Rupees Ten thousand only)as compensation for the deficiency in service of opposite party and Rs.1,000/-(Rupees One thousand only) as cost. The ordered amount should be divided among all the complainants equally. The order shall be complied within one month from the date of receipt of copy of this order.
8. If the above said amount is not paid to the complainants within 30 days from the date of receipt of copy of this order, the opposite party is liable to pay the interest at the rate of 12% per annum on the said amount from the date of receipt of the copy of this order till realisation.
Dated this7th day of May , 2021.
