Complainant Tarsem Singh through the present complaint filed under Section 12 of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 (for short, ‘the Act’)  alongwith application of condonation of delay U/s. 24-A. The application for condonation of delay is heard and admitted as the complainant has sufficient cause for delay in filing the complaint. Furthermore the complainant has prayed that opposite parties be directed to refund Rs.8,50,000/- with interest @ 12% per annum from the date of payment till its realization alongwith compensation for mental agony and harassment Rs.1,00,000/- and Rs.50,000/- as litigation expenses to him, in the interest of justice.   

2. The case of the complainant in brief is that he is an ex-serviceman and availed the services of opposite parties after reading the advertisement given by them at their immigration services in the daily Ajit Newspaper at Gurdaspur. He approached the opposite parties firstly on telephone and several communications took place between him and the opposite parties for sending his sons abroad from Dhariwal. They assured him that they have suitable job for his sons at Malaysia and Singapore and also assured of sending his sons to Malaysia and Singapore on work permit. He fell into their trap and the deal was settled at Rs.8,50,000/- and payments were made by him from Dhariwal through his banker State Bank of India Branch Dhariwal and Punjab National Bank Branch Dhariwal and acknowledgement of the same was also received at Dhairwal.  He has next pleaded that out of the consideration fixed for sending two of complainant’s sons Ritu Raj and Rajan Raj to Malaysia on work permit, Rs.2,70,000/- was received by opposite parties through State Bank of India, Dhariwal. Besides this, $1000 was given to Sajit Khan at Bangkok  Airport who was the authorized agent of opposite parties. After reaching Malaysia the opposite parties again received Rs.4,00,000/- from him on 7.2.2013 and his two sons reached Malaysia and third son to Singapore on 8.3.2013. As per the promise of opposite parties for a job in Malaysia and Singapore, when his sons reached Malaysia and Singapore they were left in a lurch when they discovered that they have been cheated by opposite parties on the pretext of giving them jobs. The term period of visa expired and the immigration authorities of Singapore and Malaysia arrested his sons and put them behind bars. The govt. lawyer of that country contacted him and demanded Rs.1,50,000/- as fine for releasing his sons. His sons were regularly in contact with the opposite parties for work permit and job as promised by them, but of no use. On 8.8.2013, his sons came back to India and on 14.9.2013 he alongwith his three sons went to the office of opposite parties at Amritsar for the fraud committed by them and requested them to return the full consideration of Rs.8,50,000/- received by them, but opposite parties kept on dillydallying the matter after which he approached the police and FIR NO.379 dated 16.11.2013 u/s 420/120-B IPC was got registered against the opposite parties on his statement. The opposite party no.1 was declared proclaimed offender on 14.7.2015 and the trial of opposite party is still pending in the court of Ms. Harsimarjit Kaur, JMIC, Amritsar. The opposite parties are habitual of cheating innocent people on the pretext of sending the abroad on work visas and have cheated numerous innocent people by extracting exorbitant money from them on the pretext for providing them employment in foreign countries.  After registration of FIR against the opposite parties, the opposite parties gave two cheques to him amounting to Rs.1,00,000/- each which he presented with his banker State Bank of India Dhariwal Branch for encashment but the same were dishonoured on 20.8.2013. The amount received by opposite parties was debited from his bank account at Dhariwal and the details of payment transferred to complainant’s account numbers are mentioned in the complaint.  He approached the opposite parties numerous times for the refund of their money from 2013 till date, but the opposite parties kept on procrastinating his genuine requests on one pretext or the other and till date the amount has not been returned by the opposite parties. Thus, there is deficiency in service on the part of the opposite parties. Hence this complaint.

3.           Service of opposite parties through publication in news paper ‘Chardi Kala’ had been made. Even attempt was made to serve the notice through District Consumer Forum Amritsar but the address of opposite parties was not found.Case called several times but none had come present on behalf of opposite parties. Hence, opposite parties were proceeded against exparte vide order dated 27.8.2018.

4.        Complainant tendered into evidence his own affidavit Ex.C1 along with documents Ex.C2 to Ex.C19 and closed the evidence.

5.       Ld.counsel for the complainant has argued that the complainant contacted the opposite parties to send his three sons Ritu Raj,  Rajan Raj and another son who wants to go to Malaysia on work permit and opposite parties received Rs.2,70,000/- through State Bank of India, Dhariwal and $1000 was also given to Sajit Khan at Bangkok Airport who was the authorized agent of opposite parties.  After reaching Malaysia the complainant again sent Rs.4,00,000/- on 7.2.2013 to the opposite parties. As per promise of opposite parties for a job in Malaysia and Singapore, when his sons reached Malaysia and Singapore they were left in a lurch when they discovered that they have been cheated by opposite parties on the pretext of giving them jobs. The term period of visa expired and the immigration authorities of Singapore and Malaysia arrested complainant’s sons and put them behind bars. The govt. lawyer of that country contacted him and demanded Rs.1,50,000/- as fine for releasing his sons and lastly on 8.8.2013 his sons came back to India and on 14.9.2013 he and his three sons went to the office of the opposite parties at Amritsar for the fraud committed by them and requested them to return the full consideration of Rs.8,50,000/- received by them but of no use.  Ld. Counsel for the complainant has further argued that opposite parties had delivered him two cheques of Rs.1,00,000/- each but the complainant has produced on record a cheque Ex.C12 which was dishonored.

6.               The complainant in order to prove the entire version relied upon his duly sworn affidavit Ex.C-1 which fully proves that the complainant availed the services of the opposite parties after reading advertisement given by them in Daily Ajit News Paper at  Gurdaspur. The copies of the receipts given to the opposite parties as Bank statements are given in Ex.C-3 to  Ex.C-6, Ex.C-8 and Ex.C-9.  Ex.C-7 is also placed on record to prove that he deposited 6930 Ringgit Malaysian currency dated 19.8.2013.On the other hand none appeared on behalf of opposite parties.  Even after service of notice and publication in Chardi Kallan News paper. Even attempt was made to serve the notice through District Consumer Forum Amritsar but the address of opposite parties was not found. Lastly on 27.8.2018 the opposite parties were ordered to be proceeded against exparte. The evidence produced on the record by the complainant remained unrebutted and unchallenged. The opposite parties were never appeared and preferred to become exparte.

7.      From the entire above discussion, it stands fully proved on record that the opposite parties failed to make payment of Rs.4,03,515/- as deposited by the complainant to send his sons abroad and 6930 Ringgit Malaysian currency.As such the complainant is entitled to the amount of Rs.4,03,515/- and 6930 Ringgit Malaysian currency dated 19.8.2013 as per current conversion rate from the opposite parties.

8.       Resultantly, we allow the complaint exparte with costs and the opposite parties are directed to make payment of Rs.4,03,515/- and 6930 Ringgit Malaysian currency which was spent by the complainant for the release of his sons from Malaysian jail as per current conversion rate  to the complainant. Compliance of the order be made within one month from the date of receipt of copy of this order, failing which the opposite parties shall be liable to pay the interest @6% per annum on the aforesaid amount of Rs.4,03,515/- and 6930 Ringgit Malaysian currency from the date of passing of order till the payment is made to the complainant. The opposite parties are also directed to pay Rs.30,000/- as compensation while litigation expenses are assessed at Rs.15,000/- to the complainant.

9.      Copies of the orders be furnished to the parties free of costs. File is ordered to be consigned to the record room.

 ANNOUNCED:                   (Rachna Arora)                   (Rajita Sareen)

 September 24, 2018.                    Member                         Presiding Member

 MK