The Manager The Maharashtra State Coop. ... vs Farmer Bank Employees Cooperative ...

4. The Appellant, thereafter, constructed 28 tenements on 14 plots out of 16 plots while the other two plots were kept vacant. With the idea of Civil Appeal No.8606 of 2019 @ SLP(C)No. 5413 of 2019 etc. The Manager, The Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank Ltd. vs. Farmer Bank Employees cooperative housing Society Ltd. & Ors. 3 making tenements available to the persons working with the Appellant in the category of peons, applications were invited from interested persons. It appears that only 19 persons satisfied the requirements and therefore 9 persons belonging to the category of clerks were also accommodated. All the 28 tenements were thus allotted to 28 employees of the Appellant sometime in March 1976. Upto the stage of allotment not a single paisa was paid by any of the employees. These employees were given the facility of financial support by the Appellant where interest was charged at concessional rate and home loans were made available to them.

6. On 16.04.2012 the Society of the employees i.e. the Respondent No.1 herein filed Complaint No.10 of 2012 before the State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, Nagpur (‘the State Commission’, for short) under Section 12 of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Act’) submitting inter alia that:-

7. Thereafter, Non-applicant No.2 engaged M/s Planarch an Architectural firm and got the tenement plans sanctioned from Non-applicant No.1. The Non-applicant No.2 then engaged Shri N.T. Vyas, a building contractor, to construct 28 tenements with its own funds. However, the Non- applicant No.2 restricted the construction of tenements to 28 only instead of 32 and 14 plots and 2 plots remained vacant as because the Board of Director of Non-applicant No.2 Bank at Head Office at Mumbai did not approve the subdivision of plots from 14 to 16.

9. The Non-applicant No.2 initially incurred all expenses relating to completion of the project as mentioned below:-

11. As stated earlier, the Non-appliant No.2 paid the price of 16 plots. The expenditure incurred on construction and for other purposes was initially borne by Non-applicant No.2. However, both the Non-applicant No.1 and Non- applicant No.2 cheated the Complainant and its members by executing the lease deed of 16 plots for a period of 30 years commencing from 03.11.1973 to 31.03.2004 in favour of Non-applicant No.2. This document of lease was executed on 26.04.1979 i.e. 3 years after handing over the possession of tenements in March 1976 and further after its own decision of 12.01.1977 taken by the Board of Directors of Non-applicant No.2 Bank to transfer the property in favour of Complainant Society. However, the annual lease rent is being paid by the Complainant society since beginning and up till now over Rs.70,000/- are paid Civil Appeal No.8606 of 2019 @ SLP(C)No. 5413 of 2019 etc. The Manager, The Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank Ltd. vs. Farmer Bank Employees cooperative housing Society Ltd. & Ors. 7

Respondent No.1 well-in-time and had thereby caused loss to the Respondent No.1, the complaint was allowed with following directions:-

15. The fact of the matter however remains that some contribution towards cost of land was made by all the tenement holders. If the amount representing cost of land was Rs.90,300/- and had there been 32 tenements, individual share of every tenement holder would have come to approximately Rs.2,822/-. However, dividing said amount by number 28, the contribution that each of the tenement holder actually paid was Rs.3,225/-; which would mean that roughly Rs.400/- extra were charged from each one of them. Accepting the plea taken by the Respondent No.1 in option ‘e’ in para 13 as mentioned hereinabove, interest of justice, in our view, would be met if the appellant is directed to make over to every tenement holder a sum of Rs.10,000/- in compensation for having recovered Rs.400/- over and above what logically could have been recovered from each one of them. It is, of course, left to the appellant either pay to each tenement holder a sum of Rs.10,000/- or transfer the entire land to the Society.

17. We, therefore, allow these Appeals and set aside the orders passed by the State Commission and the National Commission. In substitution of the directions issued, we direct:-

in the alternative the Appellant shall execute an appropriate deed conveying interest in favour of the Respondent No.1 in respect of 28 tenements and the entire land admeasuring 2709.701 square meters, as stated hereinabove, within six weeks.

b) If the Appellant pays to each of the tenement holders (or to the heirs/successors, in case the original tenement holders are no more) a sum of Rs.10,000/-, the Respondent No.1-Society shall be entitled to have an appropriate deed conveying interest in favour of the Respondent No.1 in respect of 28 tenements and the proportionate land appurtenant thereto within six weeks from today. In such eventuality, the Appellant shall continue to have right, title and interest in respect of portion of land representing those two plots over which no tenements have been constructed and it shall continue to have propriety interest and shall be entitled to deal with that portion.

documents shall be executed by the Appellant and the Respondent No.2 in favour of the Respondent No.1.

18. The Appeals are allowed in aforesaid terms. No costs.

November 14, 2019.