Coop Housing Society asked to pay Rs 15.5 lakh
The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, Panchkula, has ordered M/s Alps Coop Group Housing Society Limited, Sector 24, to pay back Rs 15.50 lakh on account of deficiency in service.
The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, Panchkula, has ordered M/s Alps Coop Group Housing Society Limited, Sector 24, to pay back Rs 15.50 lakh on account of deficiency in service.
Rahul Sharma, a resident of Sector 20, had purchased the membership of the society in 2006. He had paid Rs 45,000, Rs 5 lakh and Rs 2 lakh respectively, over a year in three instalments. At that time, he was staying in Ahemdabad.
In 2010, he found that no construction work was being initiated by the society. Then he entered into an agreement with a person for the sale of membership who also deposited Rs 8 lakh in the account of the society on his behalf.
He further submitted before the consumer court that the society moved before the Inspector Co-operative Societies, Panchkula, on May 2, 2012, for obtaining the approval of the co-operative department for exclusion of his name and one Sunil Nehra from the membership of the society on an averment that they had defaulted in the payment of instalments.
The society had told Inspector Co-operative Societies that they had sent letters on February 3, 2010, February 28, 2010, August 11, 2010, October 31, 2010, and December 24, 2010, asking for rest of payments, but the complainant claimed that no such letters ever reached him.
The society submitted before the forum that they had given a cheque of Rs 7.45 lakh to the complainant but he did not en-cashed it. The court observed that the society could not prove what was the mode of sending the cheque to the complainant and also ruled that Rs 8 lakh paid by Saurabh on behalf of the complainant "cannot be validly denied"by the society.
"The present is, thus, a case wherein the complainant has been able to prove that he paid a sum of Rs 15.45 lakh to the society and that the refund of that amount had been un-justly denied to him in spite of issuance of a legal notice. The complainant has not sought relief with regard to the flat which had been denied to him. He will, thus, be entitled to a sum of Rs 15.45 lakh and interest of 9% from the date of respective payments up to the date of refund to him. He should also be given Rs 5,000 as the cost of litigation," ruled the forum headed by president Dharampal and members Anita Kapoor and Anil Sharma.