Skip to main content

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.

Comments

Post a Comment

Most viewed this month

Partition proceedings are vitiated even if single co-sharer is not made party or is not served in accordance with law

Cause Title :  Bhagwant Singh vs  Financial Commissioner (Appeals) Punjab, Chandigarh,  CWP-2132-2018 (O&M), High Court Of Punjab & Haryana At Chandigarh Date of Judgment/Order : 31.08.2022 Corum : Hon’ble Mr. Justice Sudhir Mittal Background A large parcel of land was owned by the Nagar Panchayat. Thereafter, some of the co-sharers sold their shares to third parties including the petitioners herein. On 22.11.1995, respondents No.3 to 5 filed an application for partition of the land. The petitioners were not impleaded as parties.  On completion of proceedings, sanad was issued on 28.08.1996. Vide two separate sale deeds dated 28.05.2008 respondents No.3 and 5 sold some portion in favour of respondent No.6 and 7. These respondents sought implementation of the sanad resulting in issuance of warrants of possession dated 05.06.2008. Allegedly, it was then that the petitioners realized that joint land had been partitioned and that proceedings h...
Post a Comment
Read more

Power of Attorney holder can also file cheque bounce cases: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has held that a criminal complaint in a cheque bounce case can be filed and pursued by a person who holds a power of attorney (PoA) on behalf of the complainant. A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam gave the "authoritative" pronouncement on the issue, referred to it by a division bench in view of conflicting judgements of some high courts and the apex court. "We are of the view that the power of attorney holder may be allowed to file, appear and depose for the purpose of issue of process for the offence punishable under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act (which deals with cheque bounce cases)," the bench, also comprising justices Ranjana Prakash Desai and Ranjan Gogoi, said. The bench, in its judgement, said, "...we clarify the position and answer the questions in the following manner: "Filing of complaint petition under Section 138 of Negotiable Instruments Act through PoA holder is perfectly legal...
1 comment
Read more

Christian who reconverts as Hindu SC will get quota benefits

Amid the controversy over “ghar wapsi”, the Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that a person who “reconverts” from Christianity to Hinduism shall be entitled to reservation benefits if his forefathers belonged to a Scheduled Caste and the community accepts him after “reconversion”. Citing articles by B R Ambedkar and James Massey, and reports by Mandal Commission and Chinappa Commission, the court said: “There has been detailed study to indicate the Scheduled Caste persons belonging to Hindu religion, who had embraced Christianity with some kind of hope or aspiration, have remained socially, educationally and economically backward.” The bench of Justices Dipak Misra and V Gopala Gowda held that a person shall not be deprived of reservation benefits if he decides to “reconvert” to Hinduism and adopts the caste that his forefathers originally belonged to just because he was born to Christian parents or has a Christian spouse. Expanding the scope of a previous Constitution benc...
1 comment
Read more