ORDER NO. 8 DT. 23.11.2010

HON’BLE JUSTICE MR. P.K.SAMANTA, PRESIDENT

Appellant is present through Mr. D.Roy, Ld. Advocate.  Respondent No. 2 is present through Mr. D.Raha, Ld. Advocate, who files BNA.  Heard both sides in full.  Judgement is passed as under :-

This Appeal is by the Complainant/Appellant against the judgement and order dt. 19.2.10 passed by Nadia District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum in C.F. Case No. CC/09/35.  The complainant is a consumer under the OP No. 1, who supplies cooking  gas cylinders to him as being the distributor of cooking gas cylinders of Indian Oil Corporation.  The OP No. 2 is the Senior Area Manager of Indian Oil Corporation (Indane Gas) of Kolkata area office.  It has been specifically alleged in the complaint that the OP No. 1 refuses to book gas cylinder for supply to the complainant within a period of 21 days from the date of last delivery of the gas cylinder to him. Such allegation has been proved by the complainant by producing the receipts showing supplies of gas cylinders to the complainant and the next bookings accepted by the OP No. 1 on behalf of the complainant for subsequent supply of such gas cylinders to him. In particular, in the impugned judgement it has been recorded that the complainant booked gas on 23.6.07 and the OP No. 1 delivered to him the cylinder on 24.6.07 and the booking for the subsequent gas cylinder was taken only on 15.7.07 clearly showing that such booking was accepted on or after 21 days from the date of delivery of the last cylinder to the complainant.  Such fact has also been proved by oral evidence of one Babu Biswas, a resident of the locality in which the complainant resides and who is not a party to this complaint case.  He has clearly stated that the OP No. 1 did never accept any booking within 21 days from the date of supply of last gas cylinder to the consumers. 

On behalf of the said OP No. 1 neither any oral nor any documentary evidence has been led to show that booking of gas cylinder for supply to the consumer was accepted by him within a period of 21 days from the date of delivery of the last gas cylinder to a consumer.  On the behalf of the OP No. 2, i.e. Senior Area Manager, (Indane Gas) of Kolkata area office, it has been contended that there is no such rule specifying that a cooking gas cylinder would not be supplied to a consumer within 21 days from the date of delivery of the last cylinder to him.

In the facts and circumstances as above, we are of the view that the impugned judgement and order by dismissing the complaint merely on the ground that the OP No. 1 in most of the occasions delivered the cooking gas cylinders to the complainant within a short period of time from the date of booking of the said gas cylinders is perverse as the complaint was not made for delayed supply of gas cylinders from the date of booking, but was specifically made by alleging that the OP No. 1 did not accept any booking for supply of a cooking gas cylinder within a period of 21 days from the date of supply of the last cylinder.  For all the reasons as aforesaid the impugned judgement and order is set aside.  The complaint case is allowed.  The OP No. 1 is directed to accept booking from the complainant as and when he will apply for booking for supply of a gas cylinder to him. 

In course of hearing it has been submitted that several complaints have been made by several consumers against the OP No. 1 in this regard.  The said OP No. 1 is not appearing to contest the above Appeal in this Commission.  Since Indian Oil Corporation (Indane Gas) is being represented by their Ld. Advocate in this Appeal, it is observed that it would take effective steps against the said OP No. 1 if several complaints are made against him either in respect of refusal of booking within a period or 21 days or for non-supply of the gas cylinder within a reasonable period of time. 

Since the complaint case has been allowed and further because of refusal of booking by the OP No. 1 within a period of 21 days from the date of last supply of the gas cylinder, we are of the view that there was deficiency of service by the OP No. 1 towards the complainant causing much harassment to the complainant. He would accordingly be entitled to a compensation for the harassment thus suffered by him.  The compensation amount is determined at Rs. 5,000/- (Rupees five thousand only) and the litigation cost at Rs. 1,000/- (Rupees one thousand only) is also awarded to the complainant.  The OP No. 1 will pay a sum of Rs. 6,000/- (Rupees six thousand only) in total to the complainant within a period of 15 (fifteen) days from the date of communication of this order.  In default, the OP No. 2 will take effective steps for cancellation of the distributorship of the OP No. 1.