‘Can’t use and not pay for matrimonial services’

Can parents enrolled with matrimonial bureau/websites in search for a match for their son or daughter contact the other side directly and then refuse to pay for the bureau’s services after using the details provided by them?

Can parents enrolled with matrimonial bureau/websites in search for a match for their son or daughter contact the other side directly and then refuse to pay for the bureau’s services after using the details provided by them?

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“No,” says the Delhi State Consumer Commission, the national capital’s apex consumer court, that came to the rescue of such matrimonial services that would otherwise be forced to shut shop.

Such practices, if indulged in by any parent, are “wholly unjustified and unethical”, the Commission, headed by president Justice Barkat Ali Zaidi, said in a recent order.

The commission said this while dismissing an appeal filed by a Vasant Kunj resident Lt Col Ashok Saidha against Subh Shagun Matrimonial Services based in Mahipalpur.

Saidha’s wife had employed the matrimonial service for Rs 51,000 seeking a match for their daughter.

She had paid Rs 21,000 as advance. Shagun sent 17 proposals within 23 days to them. But the girl’s parents contacted some of them directly and terminated the contract. Meanwhile, Saidha sought a refund of Rs 21,000 with interest that his wife had paid for the services.

When the district forum dismissed Saidha’s plea, he went to the state consumer commission.

Contacting the other parties directly instead of proceeding further with the help of the matrimonial services with whom they had a contract is “wholly unjustified and unethical”, said the state commission.

“It is manifest from the fact that the appellant had broken the contract. There is no justification for the appellant to demand back Rs 21,000 because it was he who had terminated the contract without good reason,” ruled the bench.