No. 4/01.12.2010.

HON’BLE JUSTICE SRI PRABIR KUMAR SAMANTA, PRESIDENT.

Appellant through Mr. P. Banerjee, the Ld. Advocate and Respondent through Mr. P. R. Bakshi, the Ld. Advocate are present.  Both side file BNA.

Both the appeals are taken up together for disposal by a common judgement and order as the same have been filed by the respective parties against the self same order of disposal of the Complaint Case No. CDF/Unit-II/C.C. No. 607/2009 by judgement and order dated 06.01.2010.

The facts of the case may be briefly stated as under :

Complainant purchased the car by taking loan of Rs.4,36,000/- from the O.P. Banker on condition of payment of the loan amount by 47 Equal Monthly Installments.  The Complainant stopped EMI after payment of 20 installments for which the Banker took law in its hand by taking forceful possession of the car in question.  Hence the complaint.

The Banker – O.P. did not appear to contest the above complaint case.  The complaint case was accordingly allowed ex-parte against the O.P. – Banker with cost of Rs.1,000/- only with further direction to the O.P. – Banker to return the seized car to the Complainant within 30 days on payment of the balance EMIs with due interest in terms of the agreement of the loan by the Complainant.  A further amount of Rs.25,000/- has been awared in favour of the Complainant by way of compensation for the harassment and mental agony suffered by the Complainant.

In course of hearing both the parties have been contended that the seized car has already been sold to the third party and as such it is not possible at this stage to return the seized car to the Complainant.

Having regard to the aforesaid facts and circumstances as above and by following the earlier decisions of both the Hon’ble National Commission as well as the Hon’ble Supreme Court we modify the impugned judgement and order by directing the O.P. – Banker to refund to the Complainant the amount of 20 EMIs that have been received so far by the O.P. – Banker from the Complainant with interest @ 9% per annum from the date of filing of the complaint till full and final payment.  The Complainant shall be entitled to further sum of Rs.1,000/- by way of cost and Rs.25,000/- as compensation on the ground of harassment and mental agony as awarded by the District Forum below.  With this modification of the impugned judgement and order both the appeals shall stand disposed of.