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Compensation awarded to consumer even for deficiency of service in commercial property

In Kusum Agarwal . vs M/S. Harsha Associates Pvt. Ltd, the respondent being builders of an office complex offered to sale a commercial space to the Appellants for which they took money in two instalments but failed to deliver possession. The District forum order delivery of the space which was not done. The Respondents appealed before State Forum while revealing that the space had already been sold. The State Forum merely ordered refund of the money paid but failed to order paymeny of interest. When the Appellants approached NCDRC for the interest portion, the NCDRC did not consider the plea but reject the application as not maintainable as the Appellants were not consumers since the property in question is a commercial space. 

The Supreme Court found that objection raised by the NCDRC was never raised by the Respondents and set aside the order of the National Commission stating that the respondent had not even challenged the order of the State Commission and that the National Commission, in a revision petition filed by the complainant praying for increase of compensation and payment of interest, could not have dismissed the petition itself. 

The Supreme Court opined that As far as the merits are concerned, the conduct of the respondent clearly shows that he had not come to court with clean hands. In fact, in December, 2004 when a letter was written to the appellants offering them the commercial space in question, the same had already been sold to someone else. It would also be pertinent to mention that before the District Forum statement had been made by the counsel for the respondent that the shop in question was lying vacant and, therefore, the District Forum had passed the directions mentioned hereinabove. Later, it was stated that this statement had wrongly been made by the counsel due to mis-communication. The fact remains that the shop booked by the appellants was sold to another customer on 04.11.2004, even before the letter dated 06.12.2004 was sent to the appellants. It is, therefore, a clear-cut case of deficiency in service by the respondent.

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