DISTRICT CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL FORUM, SAHIBZADA AJIT SINGH NAGAR (MOHALI)

Consumer Complaint No.638 of 2017

                                                  Date of institution:  23.08.2017                                                  Date of decision   :  06.07.2018

Gurcharan Singh Sethi son of Harnam Singh Sethi, House No.2414/1, Sector 38-C, Chandigarh.

…….Complainant

Versus

1.     Sky Rock City Welfare Society (Regd.) through its President Navjeet Singh, Sky Rock City Site Office 111-112, Near CGC College, Landran, SAS Nagar, Mohali.

2.     Navjeet Singh, President, Sky Rock City Welfare Society (Regd.) through its President Navjeet Singh, Sky Rock City Site Office 111-112, Near CGC College, Landran, SAS Nagar, Mohali.

        (Now currently lodged in Central Jail, Patiala with a prayer to serve through Jail Superintendent Central Jail, Patiala).

                                                           ……..Opposite Parties

Complaint under Section 12 of

the Consumer Protection Act.

Quorum:    Shri G.K. Dhir, President,

                Mrs. Natasha Chopra, Member.

Present:     Shri N.S. Jagdeva, counsel for the complainant.

                OP No.1 given up.

                OP No.2 ex-parte.

Order by :-  Shri G.K. Dhir, President.

Order

               Complainant, on paying membership fee to OP No.1 society of Rs.5,000/- was issued share certificate of membership in his name. 150 sq. yards of plot with OP society @ Rs.8,500/- per sq. yard was agreed to be purchased by complainant with assurance that possession will be given by OPs within two years from the date of registration. Complainant was allured by Manager of OPs by claiming that necessary permissions/license from GMADA/Punjab Govt. regarding the project had been obtained. Amount of Rs.13,82,500/-, details of which given as under were paid by complainant to OPs:

                Possession of the plot has not been handed over till date, but complainant found that development work on the site is not carried by OPs at all. As OPs committed fraud by not developing the site and as such by claiming that OPs adopted unfair trade practice, this complaint filed for seeking refund of the paid amount of Rs.13,82,500/- with interest @ 12% per annum on the deposits illegally retained by OPs till date of refund. Compensation for mental agony and harassment of Rs.2,00,000/- and litigation expenses of Rs.33,000/- more claimed.

2.             Complaint against OP No.1 was withdrawn by giving up claim by suffering statement by counsel for complainant on 14.12.2017. OP No.2 is ex-parte in this case.

3.             Complainant tendered in evidence his affidavit Ex.CW-1/1 alongwith documents Ex.C-1 to C-12 and thereafter closed evidence.

4.             Written arguments not submitted. Oral arguments heard and records gone through.

5.             Question of pecuniary jurisdiction is involved in this case in the first instance. It is to be kept in mind that a Forum/Court having no pecuniary or territorial jurisdiction, if decides a case, then the order passed by it will be a nonest in the eyes of law.  So question of pecuniary jurisdiction is taken first.        

6.             As per case titled as Ambrish Kumar Shukla & 21 Ors Vs. Ferrous Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd. 2016(4) CPR 83 decided by Hon’ble National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, New Delhi, for determining the pecuniary jurisdiction of a Forum, not only the consideration paid or agreed to be paid by a consumer at the time of purchase of goods or hiring or availing of services is to be considered, but even the amount of compensation claimed alongwith interest claimed has to be taken into consideration. So it is the aggregate of the paid consideration plus the amount of claimed interest plus amount of compensation and litigation cost together to be taken into consideration for determining whether this Forum has pecuniary jurisdiction or not. View taken in this case has been affirmed further by Hon’ble National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, New Delhi in case titled as First Appeal No.1364 of 2017 titled as M/s. Omaxe Chandigarh Extension Developers Pvt. Ltd. & 2 others Vs. Lalitha Saini, decided on 21.08.2017. When the aggregate of the amount of reliefs claimed with amount of interest claimed alongwith amount of compensation and litigation expenses, taken into consideration in this case, then it is made out that total of all these amounts goes beyond the limit of Rs.20.00 lakhs. This Forum has pecuniary jurisdiction to deal with cases/complaints where the pecuniary jurisdiction limit does not exceed Rs.20.00 lakhs. However, that limit stands exceeded in this case, if the aggregate of the amount claimed alongwith interest, amount of compensation and costs of litigation taken together. So certainly this complaint deserves to be returned for presentation before appropriate Forum/Commission.

7.             Refund of amount of Rs.13,82,500/- with interest @ 12% per annum from the date of deposits till payment is sought is a fact borne from contents of Para No.22 and prayer clause of this complaint. Date of deposit of last of amount is 24.05.2015. If interest with effect from this date of 24.05.2015 to the date of institution of the complaint namely 23.08.2017 calculated on the claimed amount of Rs.13,82,500/-, then it comes to Rs.3,73,275/- for period of two years and three months. However, if interest @  12% per annum on the aggregate of amounts mentioned at Sr.No.2  and 3 of the table  w.e.f. 10.02.2012 the last date of these two deposits of Rs.3,18,750/- each upto 24.05.2015 taken into consideration, then interest on these amounts of Rs.6,37,500/- for period of three years and two months  i.e. from 10.02.2012 to 24.05.2015 comes to more than Rs.2,30,000/- because the same actually comes to Rs.2,29,500/-, if calculated for period of three years only. Compensation for mental agony and harassment of Rs.2.00 lakhs and litigation expenses of Rs.33,000/- more claimed in this case and as such aggregate of amounts of claimed relief including compensation for mental harassment and agony and litigation expenses and the interest amount referred above, comes to Rs.24,18,275/-. This aggregate amount does not include amount of interest claimed on amounts mentioned at Sr.No.4 to 7 of the above table showing details of payment. So certainly this Forum has no pecuniary jurisdiction to deal with this complaint and as such the same deserves to be returned for presentation before appropriate Forum/Commission.

8.             As a sequel of above discussion, complaint returned to complainant for presentation before appropriate Forum/Commission because this Forum has no pecuniary jurisdiction. Certified copy of the order be supplied to the parties free of costs as per rules.

Announced

July 06, 2018.

                                                                (G.K. Dhir)

                                                                President

(Mrs. Natasha Chopra)

Member