Date of filing : 28.02.2014

Date of haring : 02.08.2016

PER HON’BLE MR. SAMARESH PRASAD CHOWDHURY, PRESIDING MEMBER

        The instant Revisonal Application Under Section 17 (1)(b) of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 ( hereafter referred to as ‘the Act ‘) is at the instance of opposite Party  Shri Ratan Ghosh to  impeach the order no.08 dated 30.01.2014 passed by the Ld. District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, Cooch Behar ( for short, Ld. District  Forum in consumer complaint no.111/2013 whereby the Ld. District Forum  rejected the application filed by the Opposite Party challenging the maintainability of the proceeding.

        The Opposite Party no.1 Smt. Tulu Ghosh Poddar has initiated the complaint before the Ld. District Forum u/s 12 of the Act against the petitioner herein and two others with an allegation for deficiency in services on the part of them in issuing a cheque of Rs.30,000/- in her favour.

        Mr. Alok Mukhopadhyay, Ld. Counsel appearing for the revisionist has contended that Smt. Tulu Ghosh Poddar and another jointly contributed the amount of Rs.30,000/-to the Company viz. Gold Shine Projects India Ltd., Coochbehar on 01.07.2013.  He has further submitted the said Smt. Tulu Ghosh Poddar alone cannot draw the entire amount of Rs.30,000/- and if the Complainant is ready to accept Rs.15,000/-, the revisionist is ready to make payment to the same.  None appears for the OP i.e. the Complainant of the case.  Under compulsion, we proceeded to dispose of the Revisional Application on the basis of materials on record and relying upon the submission advanced by the Ld. Advocate appearing for the Revisionist.

        The question arose before the Ld. District Forum for consideration as to whether in case of bouncing of cheque, which has happened in this case, only remedy lies with lodging a complaint u/s 138 of Negotiable Instrument Act before a competent Court of Judicial Magistrate, First Class and whether a Consumer Forum has got any jurisdiction to entertain the same.  Referring to Section 3 of the Act, the Ld. District Forum has rightly observed that the provisions of the Act shall be in addition to and not in derogation of any other law for the time being in force.  The object behind the legislation of the Act is to ensure speedy justice in summary way and it is well settled that pendency of a Civil or Criminal proceeding shall not stand in a way, if it is otherwise found that the complaint is a ‘Consumer’ within the meaning of Section 2(1)(d) of the Act and there is deficiency on the part of the OP as per provision of Section 2(1)(g) of the Act.  Since there is no statement that any complaint u/s 138 of N.I. Act is pending between the parties, there is hardly any reason to interfere with the order impugned.

        In this regard, it would be profitable to refer an observation of the Hon’ble Apex Court reported in AIR 2003 S.C. 1043 (State of Karnataka – Vs. – Vishwabarathi House Building Cooperative Society & Ors.) has observed that the provisions of the Act are required to be interpreted as broadly as possible and the Fora under the Consumer Protection Act has jurisdiction to entertain a complaint despite the fact that the other Fora/Courts would also have jurisdiction to adjudicate upon the lis.

        The provisions of Section 17(1)(b) of the Act authorises very limited power to this Commission to interfere with the order passed by the Ld. District Forum unless it appears that there is any jurisdictional error or material irregularity in passing the order impugned.  Since we do not find any loophole in rejecting the application challenging the maintainability, the impugned order should not be disturbed.

        Consequently, the instant Revision Petition is dismissed.  The impugned order is hereby affirmed.

        The Ld. District Forum is requested to proceed further after intimating the Complainant and to dispose of the complaint within a period of three months in accordance with the provision of Section 13(3A) of the Act.

        The Registrar of this Commission is directed to send a copy of this order to the Ld. District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, Coochbehar for information.