(Delivered by Sri P. Ramesh Babu, President)

          The complaint is filed by the complainant under section 12(1) of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 for giving direction to the opposite party to pay Rs.89,563/- along with interest at 12% per annum; Rs.10,000/- towards damages; Rs.40,000/- towards mental agony and for payment of costs.

2.       The material averments of the complaint filed by the complainant so far as the present controversy is concerned, in brief, are as follows:-

          The complainant obtained loan of Rs.2 lakhs under P.M.R.Y. scheme from the opposite party to run cycle shop under the name and style of “Kondaveeti Cycle Spare Parts and Repairing Works”, Kuchipudi with term loan Account No.30806534693  that in pursuance of her approach, A.P. Khadi and Village Industries Board, Hyderabad sanctioned margin money of Rs.75,530/- towards subsidy that the opposite party instead of crediting the above margin money to the loan account, kept the same under fixed deposit resulting loss of interest at 4.5% and that the complainant filed the complaint for the above reliefs after exchange of legal notices.

3.       The opposite party filed its detailed counter denying the allegations made by the complainant in her complaint and mainly contended that as per the stipulation made by A.P. Khadi and Village Industries Board only, it deposited the margin money of Rs.75,530/- under fixed deposit in the name of the complainant that it calculated the interest as per procedure in a correct manner and that the complaint is liable to be dismissed with exemplary costs of Rs.50,000/-.

4.       The complainant filed her proof affidavit and marked Exs.A1 to A7 in support of her case before the Forum.  The opposite party filed the chief affidavit of its Branch Manager and marked Exs.B1 to B5 to substantiate its case before the Forum.  Out of the above documents, Exs.A1 and B2 are one and the same.

5.       While at the time of hearing arguments, both parties filed written arguments and the Forum received the same.

6.       The points for consideration are:        

(i)       Whether there is any deficiency in service on the part of the opposite party ?

(ii)      Whether the complainant is entitled to have the reliefs as sought for ? and 

(iii)     To what relief ?

7.       Point No.1:

          The main controversy between the parties is with regard to the keeping of the margin money of Rs.75,530/- granted by A.P. Khadi and Village Industries Board, Hyderabad under fixed deposit in the name of the complainant instead of crediting the same to her loan account.  The complainant has marked the photostat copy of the statement of expenditure and utilization certificate of margin money for an amount of Rs.75,530/- as Ex.A1 which is equivalent to Ex.B2 before the Forum.  It is the contention of the complainant that had the above amount of Rs.75,530/- been credited to her loan account immediately after it was sanctioned, principle amount relating to her loan account would have been reduced thereby reducing her burden of paying interest at 11.5% per annum.  Whereas it is the case of the opposite party that it kept the above margin amount under fixed deposit in the name of the complainant as per the guidelines issued by A.P. Khadi and Village Industries Board, Hyderabad.  The attention of the Forum in this connection has straight away been diverted to Ex.B1.  Ex.B1 is the photostat copy of the letter written by Chief Accounts Officer,  A.P. Khadi and Village Industries Board, Hyderabad to the Branch Manager, State Bank of India, Movva Branch.  It is specifically mentioned at paragraph 3 of Ex.B1 that the above margin money of Rs.75,530/- may be deposited under fixed deposit for a period of three years.  So it is in pursuance of such guidelines only, the opposite party kept the above margin money under fixed deposit in the name of the complainant.  The opposite party has also marked the relevant account copy relating to the above fixed deposit made in the name of the complainant as Ex.B4 before the Forum.  So in view of Ex.B1 and the instructions mentioned therein, it is not open for the claimant to contend in the above manner.  Accordingly the above contention taken by the complainant is not accepted by the Forum.    

8.       The last contention taken by the complainant is that the opposite party collected excess interest from her.  When the complainant has marked the photostat copies of fixed deposit receipt for Rs.75,530/-, her account copy relating to loan account, office copy of the legal notice got issued by her to opposite party, original reply legal notice got issued by opposite party, photostat copy of account copy relating to her Savings Bank Account and the bunch of photostat copies of vouchers relating to her payments made to loan account as Exs.A2 to A7 respectively, the opposite party marked the photostat copies of account copies relating to the Savings Bank Account, FDR Account and loan account of complainant as Exs.B3 to B5 respectively before the Forum.  When the Forum carefully peruses Exs.A3, A6, A7 and B3 to B5, it is very clear that the opposite party collected interest at 11.5% over Rs.1,24,470/- only after deducting margin money of Rs.75,530/- from the loan amount of Rs.2,00,000/-.  When interest is calculated at 11.5% over the above amount of Rs.1,24,470/-, the same would come to Rs.43,310/-.  So the total amount payable by the complainant is Rs.1,67,780/-, the amount of which was actually paid by the complainant.  When once the position is viewed in the above angle, it must be held that the opposite party has not claimed excess interest and the interest claimed by it was as per procedure only.    

9.       The learned Advocate for complainant while filing written arguments, has submitted two decisions as follows:

There cannot be any dispute with regard to the prepositions laid down by their Lordships in the above cases.  But when the Forum carefully peruses the above two decisions, it is very clear that facts and circumstances of the same are entirely different to that of the case on hand.  Accordingly the matter is proceeded with.

10.     Thus, in view of the discussion made above, it must be held that there is no deficiency of service on the part of the opposite party.  Accordingly the point is answered.

11.     Point No.2:                

In view of the answering of Point No.1 in the above manner, the complainant is not entitled to have any reliefs against the opposite party.  Accordingly the point is answered.

12.     Point No.3:

          In view of the answering of Points 1 and 2, the complaint filed by the complainant is liable to be dismissed.        

          In the result, the complaint is dismissed, but in the circumstances, without costs.

          Typed by N. Ramesh Babu, Junior Stenographer, to my dictation, corrected by me and pronounced by us in the open Forum, this the 18^th day of March, 2015.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Sd/-                                        

                                                                         President    

                                                           Sd/-                                Sd/-      

                   Member                           Member

District Consumer Forum-I,

                          Krishna, Machilipatnam.

Appendix of evidence

Witnesses examined

For the complainant:                          For the opposite party:

P.W.1:          Kondaveeti Hemavathi.              D.W.1: Kotu Surendra Babu,

          (Proof affidavit).                                   Branch Manager,

 State Bank of India, Kuchipudi.

 (Chief affidavit).

          Documents marked

On behalf of the complainant:

On behalf of the opposite party:

                                                                                         Sd/-                                                                                                                                                                                                               President