Case: Punj Lloyd Limited Vs. Corporate Risks India Pvt. Ltd

with the avowed object of providing summary and speedy remedy in conformity with the principles of natural justice, taking care of such grievances as are amenable to the jurisdiction of the fora established under the Act. These fora have been established and conferred with the jurisdiction in addition to the conventional courts. The principal object sought to be achieved by establishing such fora is to relieve the conventional courts of their burden which is ever-increasing with the mounting arrears and whereat the disposal is delayed because of the technicalities. Merely because recording of evidence is required, or some questions of fact and law arise which would need to be investigated and determined, cannot be a ground for shutting the doors of any forum under the Act to the person aggrieved.(Emphasis supplied) 13. Again in paragraph 7 of the aforesaid decision, it was observed: A three-Judge Bench of this Court recently in Dr. JJ. Merchant Case, (2002) 6 SCC 635 , specifically dealt with the issue as to the guidelines which would determine the matter being appropriately dealt with by a forum under the Act or being left to be heard or decided by a Civil Court. .....The decisive test is not the complicated nature of questions of fact and law arising for decision. The anvil on which entertainability of a complaint by a forum under the Act is to be determined is whether the questions, though complicated they may be, are capable of being determined by summary enquiry i.e., by doing away with the need of a detailed and complicated method of recording evidence. It has to be remembered that the fora under the Act at every level are headed by experienced persons. The National Commission is headed by a person who is or has been a Judge of the Supreme Court. The State Commission is headed by a person who is or has been a Judge of a High Court. Each District Forum is headed by a person who is, or has been, or is qualified to be a District Judge. We do not think that mere complication either of facts or of law can be a ground for the denial of hearing by a forum under the Act.(Emphasis supplied). 14. In Dr. JJ Merchants case (supra), this Court, dealing with the contention that complicated questions of fact cannot be decided in summary proceedings, also held as under :- It was next contended that such complicated questions of fact cannot be decided in summary proceedings. In our view, this submission also requires to be rejected because under the Act, for summary or speedy trial, exhaustive procedure in conformity with the principles of natural justice is provided. Therefore, merely because it is mentioned that the Commission or Forum is required to have summary trial, would hardly be a ground for directing the consumer to approach the civil court. For the trial to be just and reasonable, long-drawn delayed procedure, giving ample opportunity to the litigant to harass the aggrieved other side, is not necessary. It should be kept in mind that the legislature has provided alternative, efficacious, simple, inexpensive and speedy remedy to the consumers and that should not be curtailed on such ground. It would be a totally wrong assumption that because summary trial is provided, justice cannot be done when some questions of facts are required to be dealt with or decided. The Act provided sufficient safeguards.(Emphasis supplied). 15. Following the aforesaid observations of this Court as quoted herein-above, in the aforesaid decision of CCI Chambers case (supra) and also the observations in Dr. JJ Merhants Case (supra) which have been noted herein-above, we are of the view that the decision arrived at by the Commission is premature. The Commission ought to have issued notice to the respondent and placed the pleadings on record. When pleadings of both the parties were made available before the Commission, only then the Commission should have formed an opinion as to the nature and scope of enquiry, i.e., whether the facts which arose for decision on the basis of the pleadings of the parties required a detailed and complicated investigation of facts which was incapable of being undertaken in a summary and speedy manner, then only the Commission should have justifiably formed an opinion on the need of relegating the complaint to a civil court. That apart, in view of the admitted fact that the respondent was never served with any notice and not present before the Commission, therefore, it was not known to the Commission, what would be the defence and contentions of the respondent and what questions and disputes would really arise therefrom until and unless both sides place their respective cases before the Commission. At that stage, it is difficult for the Commission also to hold whether the disputed questions and contentions could not be decided by the Commission and the same must be relegated to the Civil Court. Every complaint of the consumer is related to a dispute and will raise disputed questions and contentions. If there was no dispute, then there would be no complaint. Therefore, the ground for rejection of the complaint namely, it arises disputed questions and contentions was definitely irrelevant. Therefore, the Commission was not justified in rejecting the complaint only on this ground. In any view of the matter, it is not evident from the order of the Commission that it had considered the nature of disputed questions of fact for which the complainant should be relegated to the Civil Court for decision. In view of our discussions made hereinabove and relying on the principles enunciated by this Court in the aforesaid decisions, we are, therefore, of the view that the Commission was not justified in rejecting the complaint merely by stating that the complicated nature of facts and law did not warrant any decision on its part before even issuing notice to the respondent and directing the filing of his defence, which, in our opinion, cannot be said to be decisive. 16.

Decision (1 = appeal accepted, 0 = rejected): 1

Explanation:
1[ds]In our view, as already observed, the Commission was not justified in relegating the complainant/appellant to approach the civil court for decision only on the ground that the complaint disclosed disputed questions and contentions which is not required to be dealt with under the Act. For this purpose, we have looked into the statements made in the complaint in detail and in depth. From a look at the statements made in the complaint, it would be difficult to say that the complaint has disclosed complicated questions of fact which cannot be gone into by the Commission and the same can only be gone into by the Civil Court before bringing the respondent on record and asking him to file his defence. The decisions, relied on by Mr. Ranjit Kumar and noted namely, Synco Industries case (supra) and the decision in Dr. J.J. Merchants case (Supra) were duly considered by Two-Judge Bench of this Court in CCI Chambers case (supra) in detail and after considering the aforesaid two Three-Judge Bench decisions of this Court, as mentioned herein above, and after explaining the same, Lahoti, CJ, (as His Lordship then was), held that the nature of averments made in the complaint was not by itself enough to arrive at a conclusion that the complaint raised such complicated questions as could only be determined by the CommissionAt that stage, it is difficult for the Commission also to hold whether the disputed questions and contentions could not be decided by the Commission and the same must be relegated to the Civil Court. Every complaint of the consumer is related to a dispute and will raise disputed questions and contentions. If there was no dispute, then there would be no complaint. Therefore, the ground for rejection of the complaint namely, it arises disputed questions and contentions was definitely irrelevant. Therefore, the Commission was not justified in rejecting the complaint only on this ground. In any view of the matter, it is not evident from the order of the Commission that it had considered the nature of disputed questions of fact for which the complainant should be relegated to the Civil Court for decision. In view of our discussions made hereinabove and relying on the principles enunciated by this Court in the aforesaid decisions, we are, therefore, of the view that the Commission was not justified in rejecting the complaint merely by stating that the complicated nature of facts and law did not warrant any decision on its part before even issuing notice to the respondent and directing the filing of his defence, which, in our opinion, cannot be said to be decisive.