By IANS,
New Delhi : Coming down heavily on builders Ansal Housing and Construction, the consumer commission Tuesday asked it to pay Rs.300,000 to a customer who was denied the possession of a flat he bought from them for over ten years.
M. Tripat Bawa, a resident of Chandigarh had purchased flat No.701, Vikas Deep, Laxmi Nagar in East Delhi in January 1998 and Ansal Housing had promised to give him possession of the flat by April 1998. But the possession had still not been given.
In its ruling, the Delhi State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, headed by Justice J.D. Kapoor, said: “The case is of highly unfair trade practice. In spite of having received the total consideration, Ansal Housing dilly-dallied over the handing over of the possession for no reason and by raising unjustified illegal demands.”
The commission also said those service providers who force a consumer to seek remedy before the consumer forum or before any other legal forum for their rightful claim are liable to pay in addition to what a consumer is otherwise entitled to as “nowadays the legal remedy is becoming costlier day by day and it is not only time consuming but at times tortuous also.”
“Rich and powerful business and other service providers drag the poor consumer to the last forum by filing one appeal after another… the poor consumer gets a final decision only after 10 years or so,” Justice Kapoor observed, while asking Ansal Housing to compensate the consumer who has suffered financial loss for ten long years.
In its defence, Ansal Housing said it could not hand over possession of the flat due to lack of some documents but the commission turned down the contention and asked it to compensate and give possession of the flat at the earliest.