BEFORE THE DISTRICT CONSUMER DISPUTES
REDRESSAL COMMISSION, JALANDHAR.
Complaint No.423 of 2021
Date of Instt. 20.12.2021
Date of Decision: 29.11.2022
1. Mrs. Ritu Joshi W/o Shri Chandan Joshi, R/o 161, Chhoti Baradari, Part-2, Opposite PIMS, Jalandhar, Punjab.
2. Shri Chandan Joshi S/o Shri Ashok Kumar Joshi, R/o 161, Chhoti Baradari, Part-2, Opposite PIMS, Jalandhar, Punjab.
..........Complainants
Versus
1. M/s Country Holidays Inn & Suites Pvt. Ltd., 3rd Floor, A-Block, A-37, Sector 63, Noida-201301 Through its M. D./Directors/Vishal Kumar/Dinesh Sharma
2. M/s Country Holidays Inn & Suites Pvt. Ltd., 3rd Floor, A-Block, A-37, Sector 63, Noida-201301 Through its Managers/Mr. Aakib/Mr.Zafar.
….….. Opposite Parties
Complaint Under the Consumer Protection Act.
Before: Dr. Harveen Bhardwaj (President)
Smt. Jyotsna (Member)
Sh. Jaswant Singh Dhillon (Member)
Present: Sh. Atul Malhotra, Adv. Counsel for the Complainants.
OPs No.1 & 2 exparte.
Order
Jyotsna (Member)
1. The instant complaint has been filed by the complainant, wherein it is alleged that OPs are engaged in providing hotel, hospitality, time share holidays and resorts etc. services to the general public for consideration. OPs approached and invited Complainants to come to Hotel Ramada, Jalandhar and prevailed upon Complainants by assuring and promising Complainants that OPs shall provide efficient and best possible time share and holiday resorts services to Complainants if Complainants purchase an International Holiday package/scheme for Rs. 1,60,000/- from Opposite parties. Opposite parties no. 2 assured Complainants regarding providing 7 days 6 nights International Holiday package per year particularly for Canada for ten years during any point of time in a year. The complainants are consumers of the services assured and promised by OPs for consideration. That Complainants agreed to purchase a Holiday time share tour and travel scheme from OPs on assurances and promises of OPs particularly OP No.2/Mr. Aakib and Mr. Zafar that OPs shall provide visitor visa services to Complainants and only embassy fee shall be charged from Complainants if Complainants wanted to visit Canada after taking membership from OPs. Further, OP No.2 promised and assured that OPs shall provide air tickets to Complainants at discounted and lesser rates than as available in market. Further OP No.2 had assured and promised Complainants that if Complainants want then OPs shall arrange 21 days continuous stay in Canada i.e. holidays for three years coupled together. In addition, many other assurances and promises were made to Complainants at the time of receiving money from Complainants for taking membership. But everything was in oral and no commitments of any written terms and conditions were given to Complainants at the time of making payment by Complainants. Relying on promises and assurances of OPs, Complainants had made entire payment of Rs.1,60,000/- on 15-8-2021 to OPs in advance and requested OPs to provide a copy of contract and terms and conditions as it was only an offer to purchase and Complainants were to confirm the membership later on after receiving the welcome letter and welcome call from Opposite parties. That OPs assured Complainants that a copy of written agreement terms and conditions shall be sent to Complainants after confirmation of payment done by Complainants. The payment was made by Complainant No.2 through credit card, but the receipt was issued by OPs in the name of Complainant No.1. Thereafter Complainants searched about the company of OPs on web and Complainants were surprised to find that the company of OPs has no arrangement with any hotel in Canada. Further Complainants came to know that OPs cannot provide 21 days long International holiday stay but at the most it can be for 14 days but again no written document was provided to Complainants. Further many other queries put forth by Complainants on the company’s web site of OPs was not answered properly by the customer care number and representative of OPs. As such Complainants became suspicious and decided to drop the idea of purchasing International holiday package from OPs. Complainants requested OPs to cancel the offer letter and refund the said amount of Rs.1,60,000/- as the conduct of OPs and their employees was not genuine or truthful. Complainants had not accepted the offer of OPs to accept the agreement and welcome call since OPs and their employees retracted from assurances and promises made to Complainants at the time of offer at Hotel Ramada, Jalandhar. Complainants felt cheated and the fear of Complainants was increased when OPs informed Complainants that the amount was non-refundable. It is clear and definite that OPs and their employees have cheated Complainants by making false and oral assurances and promises which OPs and their employees never intended to provide to Complainants after having received the total amount. Further when OPs and their employees failed to refund the amount of Rs.1,60,000/- to Complainants after cancelling the offer letter. Thereafter, complainants were constrained to issue a legal notice dated 16-9-2021 to OPs through their counsel Shri Atul Malhotra, Advocate, Jalandhar. The said legal notice was sent through Regd. Post and was delivered to OPs. But till date OPs have failed to give any reply to the said notice and further failed to refund the said amount to Complainants. Due to the above said facts there is deficiency in services, negligence, unfair trade practices and restrictive trade practices on the part of OPs. The above said acts of Opposite parties have caused mental tension, harassment, financial losses, inconveniences to Complainants and as such, necessity arose to file the present complaint with the prayer that the complaint of the complainant may be accepted and OPs be directed to refund the amount of Rs.1,60,000/- to the complainant alongwith interest @ 18% per annum from 15.08.2021 till its realization and further OPs be directed to pay a compensation of Rs.2,00,000/- to the complainant for causing mental tension and harassment and Rs.11,000/- as litigation expenses.
2. Notice of the complaint was given to the OPs, but despite service none has appeared on behalf of the OPs and ultimately both the OPs were proceeded against exparte.
3. In order to prove the case of the complainant, the counsel for the complainant tendered into evidence duly sworn affidavit of the complainant Ex.CA alongwith some document Ex.C-1 to Ex.C-20.
4. We have heard the learned counsel for the complainant and have also gone through the case file very minutely.
5. From the scrutiny of the documents, it reveals that OPs who are in the business of providing hotel, hospitality, time share holiday and resort etc. services invited the complainant to come to hotel Ramada Jalandhar and prevailed upon them to purchase an international holiday package scheme for Rs.1,60,000/- from OPs. Based upon the various promises made by the OPs, the complainant agreed to purchase the package/scheme and made the entire payment Rs.1,60,000/- on 15.08.2021 to OPs in advance. (Payment receipt is Ex.C-1). The complainant also asked OPs to provide a copy of contract and terms and conditions as it was only an offer to purchase and complainant were to confirm the membership later on after receiving the welcome letter and welcome call from OPs. The OPs assured complainant that copy of written agreement and terms and conditions shall be sent to the complainant after confirmation of payment done by complainant. Thereafter, the complainant searched about the company of OPs on web and found that OPs has no arrangement with any hotel in Canada and cannot provide 21 days long international holidays stay as was promised to them by OPs. Since many other queries of the complainants were not properly answered. The complainant became suspicious and decided to drop the idea of purchasing international holiday package from OPs. Complainant did not accept the welcome call and requested the OPs to cancel the offer letter and refund the Rs.1,60,000/-, but the OPs vide their email dated 07.09.2021 replied that they are not able to fulfill the request of the complainant to cancel the membership as it is not cancelable and non-refundable as per the policy Ex.C-2 to Ex.C-18.
6. On the other hand, the OPs have not come to contest the case. So, the version of the complainant remained un-rebutted and un-challenged, even then the same is required to glance very deeply. The allegation of the complainant is supported by his own affidavit Ex.CA and supported documents Ex.C-1 to Ex.C-20.
7. One of the vital conditions of the contract is that there must be free will of the parties and there must be meeting of minds on the terms and conditions of the contract in the similar way. Even in the Indian Contract Act, some of the contract is voidable when the same are based on or created by mis-representation. In the present complaint too, the complainants claimed that they were allured and explained about the different terms, benefits, facilities which were not available on the web of the OPs. The complainants never received the copy of the agreement. Also it seems that the complainants was not given opportunity to go through the terms and conditions of the offer letter while signing the same, being influenced by the allurements made by the representative of the OPs. We are of the opinion that complainants without any delay apprised OPs that the terms and conditions and facilities, as available on the web of the OPs, were not inconsonance with the initial proposal or invitations offer made by the representative of the OPs. By not honoring the request of the complainant to cancel the contract and by not refunding the amount, the OPs are found to be deficient in rendering service and indulging into unfair trade practice.
8. In view of the above detailed discussion, we are of the opinion that complaint deserves to be allowed and accordingly the complaint of the complainant is partly allowed and OPs are jointly and severally directed to refund Rs.1,60,000/- to the complainant alongwith interest @ 6% per annum from the date of payment till realization. Further, OPs are directed to pay a compensation including litigation expenses of Rs.10,000/- for causing mental tension and harassment to the complainant. The entire compliance be made within 45 days from the date of receipt of the copy of order. This complaint could not be decided within stipulated time frame due to rush of work.
9. Copies of the order be supplied to the parties free of cost, as per Rules. File be indexed and consigned to the record room.
Dated Jaswant Singh Dhillon Jyotsna Dr. Harveen Bhardwaj
29.11.2022 Member Member President
