The complainant is a trust and a copy of its Trust Deed has been filed.  The question as to whether a trust can institute a complaint is no more res integra in view of the decision of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in Pratibha Pratisthan & Ors. Vs. Manager, Canara Bank & Ors. Civil Appeal No. 3560 of 2008 and Civil Appeal No. 3561 of 2008 decided on 07.03.2017.

2.      In Pratibha Pratisthan (supra), the Hon’ble Supreme Court considered the question as to whether a complaint can be filed by a Trust under the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986.  Answering the question in negative, the Hon’ble Supreme Court inter-alia observed and held as under:

“2.   Section 2 (c) of the Act provides for a complainant making a complaint, inter alia, for an unfair trade practice or a restrictive trade practice adopted by any trader or service provider; a complaint in respect of goods (brought by a complainant) suffering from one or more defects; a complaint of deficiency in services hired or availed of aby a complainant and so on.  A complainant is defined in Section 2 (b) of the Act in the following words:

b)      “complainant” means –

                   (i)      a consumer; or

                   (ii)  any voluntary consumer association registered under the Companies Act, 1956 (1 of 1956) or under any other law for the time being in force; or

1. the Central Government or any State Government; or

2. one or more consumers, where there are numerous consumers having the same interest;

3. in case of death of a consumer, his legal heir or representative; who or which makes a complaint;

3.      It is quite clear from the above definition of a complainant that it does not include a Trust.  But does a Trust come within the definition of a consumer?

  A consumer has been defined in Section 2(d) of the Act as follows:

          (d)     “consumer” means any person who, -

(i)      buys any goods for a consideration which has been paid or promised or partly paid and partly promised, or under any system of deferred payment and includes any user of such goods other than the person who buys such goods for consideration paid or promised or partly paid or partly promised, or under any system of deferred payment, when such use is made with the approval of such person, but does not include a person who obtains such goods for resale or for any commercial purpose; or

(ii)      hires or avails of any services for a consideration which has been paid or promised or partly paid and partly promised, or under any system of deferred payment and includes any beneficiary of such services other than the person who hires or avails of the services for consideration paid or promised, or partly paid and partly promised, or under any system of deferred payment, when such services are availed of with the approval of the first mentioned person; but does not include a person who avails of such services of any commercial purpose;

Explanation – For the purposes of this clause, “commercial purpose” does not include use by a person of goods bought and used by him and services availed by him exclusively for the purposes of earning his livelihood by means of self-employment;

4.      A reading of the definition of the words ‘complaint’, ‘complainant’ and ‘consumer’ makes it clear that a Trust cannot invoke the provisions of the Act in respect of any allegation on the basis of which a complaint could be made.  To put this beyond any doubt, the word ‘person’ has also been defined in the Act and Section 2 (m) thereof defines a person as follows:

         (m)    ‘person’ includes, -

         (i)      a firm whether registered or not;

(ii)      a Hindu undivided family;

(iii)     a co-operative society;

(iv)   every other association of persons whether registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 (21 of 1860) or not;

5.      On a plain and simple reading of all the above provisions of the Act it is clear that a Trust is not a person and therefore not a consumer.  Consequently, it cannot be a complainant and cannot file a consumer dispute under the provisions of the Act.

6.      In view of the above, we are of the opinion that the National Commission was quite right in holding that the complaint filed by the Appellant Trust was not maintainable”.

          Following the decision of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in Pratibha Pratisthan & Ors. (supra), a three-Members Bench of this Commission in Moulivakkam Trust Heights Flats Affected Buyers Association Vs. M/s Prime Sristi Housing Pvt. Ltd. & Ors. CC No.560 of 2014 and connected matters decided on 05.05.2017, held that a trust cannot be said to be a voluntary consumer association within the meaning of Section 12 of the Consumer Protection Act.

7.      In view of the above referred decisions, the complaint filed by Consumer Online Foundation is not maintainable.  The complaint is therefore, dismissed with liberty to the complainant to avail such a remedy other than filing a consumer complaint as may be available to it in law.  It is also made clear that the dismissal of this complaint will not come in the way of the individual buyers seeking such remedy as may be available to them in law.