Complainant Kamal Kishore through the present complaint filed under Section 12 of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 (for short, ‘the Act’) has prayed that the opposite parties be directed to pay the maturity amount i.e.Rs.48,000/- as promised with 18% interest for the period taken beyond from the date of maturity and opposite parties be also burdened with cost of Rs.50,000/- alongwith Rs.20,000/- on account of harassment and mental agony and Rs.20,000/- as litigation expenses..

2. The case of the complainant in brief is that on the assurance of opposite party no.2 and in good faith he invested Rs.1000/- per month with the opposite party no.1 and paid continuous installments for the period of three years i.e. Rs.36,000/- from March 2013 to February 2016 and his registration number is Rim036/24839 and as such he consumer of the opposite parties. He has further pleaded that as per policy the maturity amount was to be paid to him within 45 days from the last installment which was paid by him in February 2016, but till date no payment has been made to him despite the fact that all the relevant documents were submitted through opposite party no.2 in the first week of March 2016. The opposite party no.2 used to collect the installments from him personally but when he visited the office of opposite party no.1 on 10.05.2016 it was revealed that company will pay only Rs.39,000/- as the installments were not deposited on time by the opposite party no.2 and he used to keep the money of installments taken from him on time with him with malafide intention and did not pay the installments on time to opposite party no.1. The opposite party no.2 is agent of opposite party no.1 and as such opposite party no.1 is responsible for the act and conduct of the opposite party no.2. He called the opposite parties number of times, but no satisfactory answer was given. He even talked to one H.P. Singh who is MD of company as per information given by opposite party no.2 but he also failed to answer as to why his payment is not being made. He was called four times to opposite party no.2 on 18.9.2016 on his mobile no.9988615970 but he deliberately not attended his call and messages sent by him. Opposite parties are doing unfair trade practice and getting money invested from general public on fake promises and playing fraud with them. Thus there is deficiency in service on the part of the opposite parties. Hence this complaint.

3. Upon notice, the opposite parties appeared through their counsel and filed their joint written reply by taking the preliminary objections that the complainant has not come to the court with the clean hand and has concealed the true and material facts from the Hon’ble Court; the complaint is not maintainable in the present form; the applicant wants to take undue advantage of the law of his own wrongs and as per the norms and terms of the company all the matter relating to the investments in the aforesaid companies will be referred to the Arbitrator and Arbitration proceedings will be taken up as per the provision of Arbitration and Conciliation Act 1996. On merits, it was submitted that the opposite party no.2 has joined the company namely Rich Infra Housing Co. Operative Society Ltd. on 1.6.2015 at Pathankot and the applicant had started investing in Rich Infra Developers Ltd Office at Gurdaspur, so it is clear from the fact that the whole story has concocted by the applicant to taking undue advantage of the law. The applicant has invested the money with Rich Infra Developer Ltd. with the plan of issuance of One plot instead of his payment in monthly mode which was later issued in the name of the applicant on 12.3.1013 vide allotment of plots against the application no.107363 of 480 Sq.ft. of area vide Khatauni no.363/377 as per company project plot no.9226 and is situated at village Kot Tehsil Garhshankar Distt.Hoshiarpur Punjab. All other averments made in the complaint have been denied and lastly the complaint has been prayed to be dismissed with costs.

4. Complainant tendered into evidence his own affidavit Ex.C1 alongwith other documents Ex.C2 to Ex.C7 and closed the evidence.

5. Counsel for the opposite parties tendered into evidence documents Ex.OP-1 to Ex.OP-6 and closed the evidence.

6. We have carefully perused all the documents/evidence available on the complaint records (as produced by the litigants) in the very back-drop of the arguments of the learned counsels (for the two sides) to determine the statutory infringement of consumer rights as alleged by the complainant against the titled opposite parties.

7. We find that the present complainant had allegedly invested his monthly savings for 36 months with the opposite party 1 (at the behest of opposite party 2) @ Rs.1,000/- per month w e from March’ 2013 to receive back an assured sum of Rs.48,000/- within 45 days of the maturity having fallen in February’ 2016 and upon its non-receipt, the instant lis did prompt. Somehow, the complainant has not produced any cogent evidence (amongst Ex.C2 to Ex.C7, all) during the current proceedings so as to support/prove his above-claimed terms of investment.

8. We further find, on the other hand, that the herein titled opposite parties have alleged in their joint written statement (sans requisite deposition/affidavit) that the complainant had invested his savings for allotment of one plot (480 sq ft) and not as an investment in Recurring Deposit for receipt of its maturity proceeds. The opposite parties have also produced documents (sans affidavit-not proved) exhibited here as Ex.OP1 to Ex.OP6 in support of the above pleaded defense. We find that all these documents are of unilateral origin/prompt and none of these (even the so-called agreement to sell) carries the requisite signatures of the present complainant to evidence his consent/approval/acknowledgement etc. However, it surely stands admitted that the complainant did deposit Rs.36,000/- with the opposite parties @ Rs.1,000/- per month and thus he shall be entitled to receive the same back even in the absence of any legally enforceable clear terms of repayment agreement etc along with a suitable compensation and cost of litigation etc.

9. In the light of the all above, we partly allow the present complaint and thus ORDER the titled opposite parties ( OP 1 and OP 2 )to refund/repay back to the complainant the full deposited amount alongwith maturity benefits besides to pay him Rs.10,000/- as cost & compensation for having suffered harassment etc within 30 days of the receipt of the copy of these orders otherwise they shall also be liable to pay interest @ 9% PA on the aggregate awarded amount from the date of the present orders till actually paid.

10. Copy of the order be communicated to the parties free of charges. After compliance, file be consigned to record.

(Naveen Puri)

President

Announced: (Jagdeep Kaur)

May,15 2017 Member

*MK*