Lourdes Sty.Snehanjali Girls ... vs M/S H & R Jhonson(I) Ltd.& Ors

The brief facts of the case in nutshell are as under:-

The District Forum vide its order dated 31.12.2005 held that the tiles supplied by the respondents had manufacturing defect. The respondents committed an unfair trade practice by supplying such defective tiles. By holding the respondents jointly and severally liable, the District Forum directed the respondents to pay to the appellants a sum of Rs.2,00,000/- along with interest @9% p.a. from the date of complaint i.e., 31.10.2002 till its recovery. The respondent no.1 was directed to pay the above amount to the appellant within a period of 30 days from the date of order of the District Forum.

Being Aggrieved, the respondents filed First Appeal No. 741 of 2006 before Gujarat State Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission, Ahmedabad (for short “the State Commission”) challenging the said order of District Forum urging various grounds.

The State Commission dismissed the said First Appeal of the respondents by its order dated 12.10.2006 and confirmed the order passed by the District Forum.

The facts of the instant case clearly reveal that the National Commission has erred in observing that the appellant-Society is a commercial establishment by completely ignoring the Memorandum of Association and byelaws of the appellant-Society. Both the District Forum as well as the State Commission have rightly held that the appellant-Society is a charitable institution and not a commercial entity. The relevant portion of the order passed by the District Forum reads thus:

Further, the National Commission while passing the impugned order has ignored certain facts which throws light on callous attitude on the part of the respondents viz., when the defect in the tiles were brought to the notice of the respondents by sending various letters, there was no action on their part. Later a local agent on behalf of the respondent no.1-Company visited the premises of the girl’s hostel and verified that the said tiles were defective and damaged. However, no proper attention was paid by the respondents towards the issue. Further, to assess the damage caused to the appellant-Society by the use of the said defective tiles, a registered architect and interior designer, J.M. Vimawala was hired by the appellant- Society, who in his report declared the tiles to be defective and assessed the damage to the appellant-Society to the tune of Rs.4,27,712.37. Thereafter, the appellant-Society made a demand of the said amount as damages from the respondents vide legal notice dated 12.08.2002. But the respondents did not pay any heed to the said notice as well. Because of such irresponsible and indifferent attitude on the part of the respondents, the appellant-Society was compelled to file Consumer Complaint No. 743 of 2002 before the District Forum.

The District Forum, after appreciating the pleadings and evidence on record has rightly awarded Rs. 2 lakhs as damages to the appellant-Society towards defective tiles supplied by the respondents along with compensation towards mental harassment and cost of present proceedings with interest @9% p.a. from the date of complaint till its recovery. In concurring with the findings of the District Forum, the State Commission, after proper re- appreciation of the facts and evidence on record has rightly exercised its jurisdiction by dismissing the appeal of the respondents. The National Commission should not have interfered with the concurrent findings of fact recorded in the judgment impugned before it particularly having regard to the nature of the jurisdiction conferred upon it by Section 21 of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986. Section 21 of the aforesaid Act reads thus:

Therefore, the concurrent finding of fact recorded by the District and the State Commission has been erroneously interfered with by the National Commission by passing the impugned order, which is liable to be set aside. For the aforesaid reasons, the appeal of the appellant-Society must succeed.

For the reasons stated supra this appeal is allowed, the impugned order of the National Commission is hereby set aside and we restore the order of the District Forum which is affirmed by the State Commission. The matter has been under litigation for the last fourteen years, we direct the respondents to pay or deposit the amount so awarded by the District Forum along with interest @9% p.a. within six weeks from the date of receipt of the copy of this judgment. The costs of Rs.50,000/- of these proceedings are also awarded in favour of the appellant-Society.