Consumer forum imposes fine on complainant

CHANDIGARH - The district consumer disputes redressal forum here Tuesday directed a complainant to pay a sum of Rs.30,000 for filing a false complaint against a car agency from where he had bought a vehicle last year.

The complainant, Deepak Kumar, had accused a city-based Hind Motors of deceiving him by delivering an Indica car of 2008 model in Oct 2009.

“I took the delivery of the car on October 7 last year, then I got a call from Hind motors on October 13 and they informed me that I had won a Diwali prize of Rs.23,552,” Deepak said.

He added: “On Oct 29 when I was checking documents of the car, I found that in the service coupons attached with the owner’s manual and service book, the invoice date was mentioned as 27.9.2008 though the invoice was issued 7.10.2009.”

In his plea, Deepak demanded an immediate replacement of the car along with Rs.200,000 compensation for causing harassment and mental agony and Rs.33,000 as costs of litigation.

Besides Hind Motors, Deepak also made Chandigarh Tata Motors and Gurgaon Tata Motors party in his complaint and accused them of deficiency in their service and of unfair trade practice.

During the argument, counsel for Hind motors said that Deepak had purchased the car manufactured in September 2008 as per his own will because of the discount of Rs.23,000 offered on it.

“The model of the car was mentioned as 2009 instead of 2008 on the written request of Deepak and to please our customer,” said the counsel.

After hearing the arguments here Tuesday, the forum dismissed the complaint and directed Deepak to pay a sum of Rs.30,000 to the opposite party.

The forum also directed the concerned officials to immediately approach the vehicle registration authority to change the model of the vehicle to 2008 from 2009, in the documents.