This complaint coming up before us for final hearing on  04-12-14 in the presence of complainant and opposite party remained absent and set exparte, upon perusing the material on record and having stood over till this day for consideration, this Forum made the following:-

O R D E R

Per Sri A. Prabhakar Gupta, Member:-

This complaint is being filed u/s 12 of the Consumer Protection Act claiming to order to release the free gift as proclaimed by the opposite party since he has been paid the three years subscription amount in terms of Subscription Renewal Form.

 2.   In brief the averments of the complaint are these:

          The complainant is the resident of Bandarupalli village, Tadikonda Mandal of Guntur district and he is the subscriber to the opposite party magazine by name India Today for the last 20 years.  His last subscription period is to be ended by 12-11-13.   The present complainant is having subscription number as ITL 24165.  While that is so, three months before the expiry of subscription period the present complainant received subscription renewal proposal form on 20-08-13.  In terms of said subscription renewal proposal form there is gift of wireless phone for the subscribers who will pay three years subscription. In terms of the said renewal proposal form, the present complainant issued a cheque of Rs.2350/-(Rs.2340+10) under cheque No.351789/20-08-13 and send the same by way of registered post with acknowledgment due  under Transaction No.662655441/dt.21-08-2013 to the opposite party on 21-08-13.  So the complainant fulfilled the terms of the said proposal form in connection with the free gift i.e., he has been send it within fourteen days in terms of the said proposal form.   Subsequently, the present complainant received another subscription renewal proposal form on 12-10-13.  The said proposal form is also contained the same terms and conditions which was received by the complainant previously on 20-08-13.   Then the complainant wrote a letter along with previous subscription renewal form and copy of the cheque submitted to the opposite party by way of registered post on 14-10-13 itself.   After due conversations with the officials of the opposite party and on the advice and suggestions of the officials the present complainant again issued a cheque for Rs.2350/- (Rs.2340+10) under cheque No.351792/dt.15/10/13 and send the set of 2^nd time subscription renewal proposal form  along with cheque and  by way of DTDC courier on 17-10-13.  In addition to this the complainant also informed about all the facts by way of letters.   Subsequently, the present complainant received a letter from the opposite party that they were not received any cheques from the complainant.   After due enquiry with the Postal Department made by the complainant the fact of delivering of both the cheques has been confirmed that the 1^st cheque cover delivered on 27-08-13;  Subsequently, on the advice of the officials of the opposite party the present complainant issued 3^rd cheque for Rs.2350/-(Rs.2340+10) under cheque No.351800 dated 10-03-14 for the renewal of his subscription and for getting the free gift article.   The 3^rd cheque was encashed by the opposite party on 02-04-14 and the subscription of the present complainant has been renewed for a further period of three years.   But the complainant not received the gift article as mentioned in the subscription renewal form.   Inspite of repeated requests, letters and also making conversations with the officials of the opposite party, the present complainant not received the same.   Hence, there is a deficiency of services on the part of the opposite party in fulfillment of sending free gift article in terms of the subscription renewal proposal form.    As there is no other go the complainant filed the present complaint for grant of reliefs as prayed for.

3.    The opposite party set exparte.

4.      To prove the case of the complainant, he filed documents which were marked as Exs.A-1 to A-21.  

5.  Now the points that arose for consideration in this complaint are:

1. Whether the complainant is entitled for the relief as prayed for,               as the opposite party committed deficiency in service?

2.  To what relief? 

6.    POINT No.1:-    The complainant himself present before the Forum and submitted his arguments.  As per his contentions/arguments the opposite party failed to release the free gift article in terms of the renewal proposal form even the complainant submitted the formalities like sending of the cheque within fourteen days along with subscription renewal proposal form.   Further, he also argued that inspite of repeated requests and inspite of sending 2^nd time cheque and also 3^rd time cheque also the complainant not in a position to receive the pronounced gift article.   However, the complainant’s subscription period has been renewed for further period of three years.   So, there is a deficiency on the part of the opposite party with regard to the prayer of this complaint and so he prayed this Forum to award the reliefs as prayed for.

7.      With the arguments of the complainant in person and on the strength of the documents available on record which were marked as Exs.A-1 to A-21, it is an admitted fact that the present complainant is subscriber to the opposite party magazine for the past twenty years.   It is also an admitted fact that the opposite party sent a subscription proposal renewal form which contained some gift articles for the payment of subscription in terms of the said proposal renewal form.  Now the discussing point is whether the opposite party committed any deficiency in sending the gift article in terms of the proposal renewal form in spite of receiving the subscription amount as pronounced by them.  Ex.A-1 renewal proposal form containing one Acard Fixed wireless phone as a gift article for the subscribers who paid the subscription amount of Rs.2350/- (2340+10) within fourteen days.   According to the contents of the complaint and with the arguments of the complainant, the present complainant received the said form on 20-08-13 and he issued a cheque for Rs.2350/- on the day itself i.e., on 20-08-13 and the same was posted along with subscription renewal proposal formby way of registered/acknowledgment due on 21-08-13.   So the condition of sending the proposal form along with cheque has been dispatched by the complainant within fourteen days.   Again on the advise of the officials of the opposite party, the present complainant issued another cheque for Rs.2350/-     on 15-10-13 and sent it bay way of DTDC courier on 17-10-13 for the same renewal. As per the contents of Ex.A-12 and A-15 which were issued by the opposite party on 02-12-13 and 14-12-13 respectively they were received both the cheques in the nature of out dated and as on that dates they are not having free gift articles.  Whereas, according to Exs.A-10 and               A-11 which are the postal authorities letters it is elicited that  the Regd. Postal cover under Transaction No.662655441, dt.21-08-2013 has been delivered by the postal department on  27-08-2013 itself.  So, the contention as mentioned by the opposite party under Ex.A-12 and A-15 are all false and created to evade the gift articles to the complainant.   Even both the cheques were i.e., 1^st and 2^nd cheques returned by the opposite party and encashed only 3^rd cheque and made the complainant as a renewed subscriber, there is a deficiency on the part of the opposite party since they committed non performance of terms and conditions of the proposal form and thus committed deficiency of services.   So the opposite party is liable for the damages.

8.  POINT No.2:-   In the result the complaint is allowed in  part directing the opposite party to pay an amount of Rs.2800/- towards the cost of proclaimed gift articles and an amount of Rs.1,000/- towards mental agony and an amount of Rs.2,000/- towards for the cost of litigation.   The                      1^st amount of Rs.2800/- will carry interest @9% p.a., if the above amounts are not paid within thirty days from the date of this order.

           Dictated to Junior Stenographer, transcribed by her, corrected by me and pronounced in the open Forum dated this the 10th day of December, 2014.

MEMBER                                  MEMBER                               PRESIDENT

APPENDIX OF EVIDENCE

          DOCUMENTS MARKED

For Complainant:

For opposite party:  NIL

PRESIDENT

NB:   The parties are required to collect the extra sets within a month after receipt of this order either personally or through their advocate as otherwise the extra sets shall be weeded out.