DISTRICT CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL COMMISSION,

BATHINDA

C.C.No.326 of 14-12-2021

Decided on : 16.03.2023

Baldev Raj Kamboj, Advocate, Chamber No.127, Ground Floor, Lawyer's Chamber Complex, Bathinda.

........Complainant

Versus

Reliance Jio Infocom Ltd., C-135, Phase-8, Industrial Area, Sector 73, Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar, Mohali.

.......Opposite party

Complaint under Section 35 of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019

Quorum :

Sh. Lalit Mohan Dogra, President

Sh. Shivdev Singh, Member

Present :

For the complainant : Sh. B.K. Kamboj, complainant in person.

For opposite party : Ex-parte.

O R D E R

Lalit Mohan Dogra, President

1. The complainant Baldev Raj Kamboj (here-in-after referred to as complainant) has filed this complaint U/s 35 of Consumer Protection Act, 2019 (here-in after referred to as 'Act') before this Commission against Reliance Jio Infocom Ltd., (here-in-after referred to as opposite party).

2. Briefly stated, the case of the complainant is that he obtained mobile connection of Reliance bearing No.78149 00128 about two years back and started using the said connection as per his requirement. The said connection was pre paid connection. The complainant obtained the said connection after furnishing the requisite formalities i.e. Copy of the Aadhaar Card. The complainant is practicing as an Advocate in District Courts Complex, Bathinda and earlier the complainant was doing the clerical work under Sh.Mohinder Singh Sidhu, Senior Advocate, Bathinda and was also pursuing his LL.B. and the complainant was provided the aforesaid connection by the officials of Reliance Jio by holding a Seminar/Camp in the Judicial Courts Complex, Bathinda. Besides the complainant, various other persons were also given connections by the concerned officials of Reliance Jio.

3. It is alleged that since the date of the allotment of said mobile connection, the complainant has been regularly using and getting recharged and said connection never remained unused.

4. It is alleged that the complainant lastly got the said mobile connection recharged in September, 2021 which was valid upto 22.11.2021 but to the utter dismay and surprise of the complainant, the said connection of the complainant has been disconnected by the opposite party for the last about 1.1/2 months. The complainant repeatedly contacted the opposite party through customer care but opposite party failed to give any satisfactory reply and thereafter opposite party started proclaiming that the complainant is not a registered subscriber of the said connection and the aforesaid connection was never allotted to the complainant in the records of Reliance Jio although the complainant obtained the connection after furnishing requisite documents of his identity and continued using the same for about two years.

5. It is also alleged that opposite party have now allotted the said connection to some other person in an illegal manner due to which complainant is suffering from grave mental tension, agony, botheration, harassment, humiliation and also suffered huge financial losses as various clients of the complainant could not contact him.

6. The complainant further alleged that he repeatedly requested the opposite parties to re-allot the aforesaid mobile number to him but to no effect rather the opposite parties failed to pay any heed to the requests of the complainant. The complainant also got issued a legal notice dated 23.10.2021 to the opposite party in this regard but despite the opposite party neither gave any reply to the notice nor re-allotted the said mobile connection to the complainant rather the same has already been illegally allotted by the Reliance to some other person. Due to the abovesaid illegal acts of the opposite party, the complainant suffered from great mental tension, agony, botheration, harassment and humiliation and huge financial losses for which he claims compensation to the tune of Rs.50,0000/-.

7. On this backdrop of facts, the complainant has prayed for directions to the opposite party re-allot mobile connection No. 78149-00128 to complainant and also pay to him compensation to the tune of Rs. 50,000/- in addition to litigation expenses to the tune of Rs. 11,000/-.

8. Registered A.D. Notice of complaint was sent to the opposite party but none appeared on its behalf. As such, exparte proceedings were taken against opposite party.

9. The complainant led exparte evidence. In exparte evidence, the complainant has tendered his Affidavit dated 19.5.2022 (Ex.C-11), and documents (Ex. C-1 to Ex. C-10).

10. We have heard learned counsel for the complainant and gone through the record.

11. To prove his case, the complainant has filed an affidavit (Ex. C-11) reiterating the facts mentioned in the complaint and receipts of re-charge (Ex. C-5 to Ex. C-8), as per which the complainant has successfully recharged his phone lastly on 23-12-2020 for Rs. 599/-, which shows that said mobile number was issued by the opposite party to complainant which was being used by him. The plea of the complainant is that he is an Advocate and he had got allotted the said number with last three digits i.e. 128 which is chamber of the complainant. On the other hand, opposite party has not put an appearance and not explained any reason for disconnecting the said connection of the complainant and allotting the same to some other person. In the absence of any explanation or reasonable cause, the action of the opposite party, amounts to deficiency in service.

12. Accordingly, complaint is partly allowed and the opposite party is directed to re-allot mobile SIM No. 78149-00128 to complainant and pay compensation/damages to the tune of Rs. 5,000/- for mental tension and harassment.

13. The compliance of this order be made by the opposite party within 45 days from the date of receipt of copy of this order.

14. The complaint could not be decided within the statutory period due to heavy pendency of cases.

15. Copy of order be sent to the parties concerned free of cost and file be consigned to the record room.

    Announced :

    16-03-2023

    (Lalit Mohan Dogra)

    President

     

     

     

    (Shivdev Singh )

    Member