SRI. SAJEESH.K.P    : MEMBER

    The complainant has  filed this complaint  under Sec.35 of the Consumer Protection Act 2019,  seeking direction against the  OP to  pay Rs.65,000/- which was given for  printing of literary works and also pay Rs.50,000/- as compensation for mental agony.

Complaint in brief :-

   According to the complaint, complainant is a renowned poet and creative  writer.  The complainant approached OP to publish his Malayalam and English poem and Rs.62395/- given to OP in two installments of Rs.55,000/- and Rs.7395/- respectively in order to get his books published in high standard quality.  But to the dismay of complainant, OP failed to comply the basic printing quality and thereby complainant sustained mental agony and huge loss, hence this complaint.

               After filing the complaint, commission sent notice to OP.  Notice of OP is not returned so far.  Hence presumed as served.  OP has not  appeared before the  commission and not  filed any version . So the commission  came to be proceed against the OP as set exparte. 

         Even though, the opposite party has  remained ex-parte, it is for the complainant to establish the allegation made by him against the  OP.   Hence the complainant was called upon to produce evidence in the form of affidavit and documents.  The complainant  filed  his proof affidavit along with 2 documents and 2 MOs.    Ext.A1 is the bill issued by Haritha design, Payyanur dtd. 12/4/22, Ext.A2 is the bill issued by OP dtd.26/4/2022, MO1 is the Malayalam poem  “Samarppanam”, MO2 is the English poem “Covid-19”.  Complainant was examined as PW1.  So the OP  remains absent  in this case.  At the end the commission heard the case on merits.

   Being  exparte, the OP has no evidence and the complainant has to prove his case.  Hence  the commission look into a glance of available evidences produced by  the complainant to answer  whether there is any deficiency in service.

    On the perusal of Ext.A1 dtd.12/4/2022 it is seen that an amount of Rs.7395/- was paid by the complainant towards DTP,layout, cover design of “Covid-19”  and Samarpanam” to Haritha Design, Payyanur , who was  neither seen as a party to the complaint as well as nothing mentioned by the complainant in his complaint and affidavit that Rs.7395/- was paid to Haritha Design, nor mentioned any relations between OP and Hartiha design.  As per  Ext.A2 dtd.26/4/2022, an amount of Rs.55,000/- seen as  received by OP.  According to the complaint and affidavit, complainant claimed that OP failed to comply the directions given by complainant.  But before the commission there is no such agreement between complainant and  OP produced to peruse the terms and conditions as stated  in the complaint.  On the perusal of MO-1, it is seen that the “contents” has no  page numbers and the poems are not divided into  paragraphs.  According to poetic rules stanzas, lines and line breaks will add more beauty and it is the creation of poet.  Stanzas are more equivalent  to paragraphs.  The creativity of a poem cannot be altered.  On the perusal of  MO-2, it is seen that “all rights reserved” are not included, preface, forward contents and poems crept so many mistakes.  Preface, forward and poems have so many spelling mistakes and contents have no page numbers etc.  The commission  noticed spelling mistakes, omission of  page numbers in content, omission to divide into stanzas etc in MO1 and MO2.  There is no other specific evidence with regard to the quality of paper, binding etc is not produced before the commission by the complainant and hence the commission came into a conclusion that the complainant suffered deficiency in service as OP failed to comply  basic criteria while printing MOs 1&2 as specified earlier.

          In the result the  complaint is allowed in part.  The opposite party is  directed  to pay Rs.55,000/- which was paid by the complainant to opposite party towards the printing of MOs 1&2 and also pay Rs.10,000/- as compensation and Rs.5000/- as cost of litigation  to the complainant  within  30 days from the date of  receipt  of this order .  In default Rs.55,000/-  carries interest @10% per annum  from the date of order till realization,   failing which the  complainant is  at liberty to  execute  the  order as  per the  provisions  of Consumer Protection Act 2019.

Exts:                

A1& A2-cash bills

MOs 1&2- Malayalm and English poem Samarpanam and covid 19

PW1-Babu.P.Nair-complainant.

 Sd/                                                                       Sd/                                                   Sd/

PRESIDENT                                             MEMBER                                    MEMBER

Ravi Susha                                       Molykutty Mathew                                    Sajeesh K.P

eva                                                                               

                                                                       /Forwarded by Order/

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