Mumbai Grahak Panchayat
Vs.
M/s Lohia Machines Ltd. 

M.A. Vahab, Secretary General, 'Coinpar' Kerala
Vs.
Managing Director, M/s Lohia Machines Ltd.

BALAKRISHNA ERADI, J

      This Complaint has been preferred by the Mumbai Grahak Panchayat, a registered voluntary Consumer organisation having its office in Bombay. The opposite party M/s Lohia Machines Limited is a company engaged in the manufacture of two wheeler scooters having the brand name Vespa-XE. Applications had been invited by the company from persons interested in the purchase of a scooters and the stipulation was that at the time of booking and registration an advance deposit of Rs.500/- was to be made by each customer which was later to be adjusted against the total price payable by him at the time of the delivery. As per the conditions notified by the company, the advance deposit of Rs.500/- was to carry simple interest of 9 percent per annum but in the event of cancellation of the booking by the applicant, the money deposited by way of advance was to be refunded by the company with only interest at the rate of 7 percent per annum. There was a  further condition that in the case of cancellation of the booking within the first six months from the date of the close of booking, no interest shall be payable. However, it was clearly stipulated that the refund of the deposit amount shall be made by the company by a demand draft to be posted to the customer within 60 days from the date of receipt of the cancellation advice.

      The complainant has further stated that in addition to the persons whose particulars are enumerated in Annexure'II', they are many thousands of others all over India who are similarly situated and whose deposit amount are being wrongfully withheld by the company inspite of their having cancelled their bookings long ago. Hence it has been prayed that this petition should be treated as a public interest petition filed on behalf of all such persons as well and that a general order should be passed against the company granting the reliefs aforementioned in favour of all such similarly situated persons also.

      We find little justification for the failure on the part of the company to discharge its obligation of refunding to the persons who had cancelled their bookings, the amounts of their deposits together with the stipulated interest immediately after expiry of the period of 60 days from the date of  receipt of the cancellation advice as had been solemnly undertaken by them in paragraph 4 of Annexure 'I'. Hence a clear case of deficiency in service is made out against the Opposite Party for which the consumers represented by the complainant are entitled to be reasonably compensated.

      After taking into account all relevant factors, we consider it would be reasonable to direct the respondent company to pay to all the persons figuring in Annexure 'II', interest at 18 percent on the amounts of deposits wrongfully retained by the company beyond the period of 60 days from the date of receipt of the cancellation advice. In other words, the company shall pay to each of the persons figuring in Annexure 'II' in respect of whom they have defaulted to refund the advance deposit amount within the stipulated period of 60 days from the date of receipt of the cancellation advice, interest on the amount of advance deposit at 18 percent per annum for the period between the date of expiry of the 60 days period mentioned above and the date of actual repayment  of the advance deposit amount. We make it clear that this direction regarding payment of interest will apply even in respect of those persons included in Annexure 'II' to whom the company has despatched refund payment orders subsequent to the receipt of notice of this petition.

      Taking into account the enormous expenditure which the complainant has had to incur in collecting all the date concerning the 934 persons represented by the complainant and preparing the complaint petition with its annexures, we direct that the respondent company shall pay to the complainant-Mumbai Grahak Panchayat, a sum of Rs. 5000/- by way of costs of this petition.

      Coming now to the complainants prayer that the same relief should be extended also to all other unascertained persons also who are similarly situated by treating this as a public interest petition, we think that the proper course to adopt is to direct the respondent company to furnish to this Commission an exhaustive list containing the names and particulars of all the persons to whom refund of deposit amounts remain outstanding as unpaid despite the company having duly received from them advice of cancellation of their bookings for the scooter. The list to be filed by the respondent company should exhaustively cover all cases of customers belonging to all the States in India to whom refunds of advance deposits have accured due and are remaining unpaid despite the lapse of 60 days from the date of receipt by the company of their cancellation advice. We direct the respondent Company to file such a complete list before this commission within a period of six weeks from today.

Mumbai Grahak Panchayat & Anr. (CPC, Rourkela)
Vs.
M/s Lohia Machines Ltd.

      After elaborate discussions at the Bar, the complainant namely, Mumbai Grahak Panchayat, Bombay and the intervenor, Akhil Bhartiya Grahak Panchayat, Delhi and the Opposite Party, M/s Lohia Machines Limited, Kanpur have submitted an agreed joint scheme for repayment by the company of all the outstanding amounts of scooter deposits to all the remaining customers who have cancelled their bookings of scooters. The Scheme is hereby approved and it will from a part of this Order.

      Under the said scheme the company is to pay to all the remaining customers to whom deposit amounts are outstanding, the principal amount of Rs.500/- with interest thereon at the rate of 7 percent annum from the date of deposit till the date of cancellation, thereafter interest at the rate of 11 percent per annum from the date of cancellation upto 1.1.1992 and subsequently interest at the rate of 12.5 percent per annum from 1.1.1992 till the date of actual payment.

      The company is required under the Scheme to release every month a sum of Rs.50/- lakhs to be utilised exclusively for the repayment of scooter deposits in terms of clause (1) of the scheme to the customers in accordance with the priority of dates of their cancellation of booking i.e. on a first come first serve basis. It is enjoined under the Scheme that the company shall complete the whole process of repayment in pursuance of the Scheme to all the customers whose deposit amounts remained unpaid not later that September 30, 1995 by increasing, if necessary, the release of funds for the said purpose during the final year.

      We direct that the Scheme shall be put into operation from April, 1992 onwards and by the 15th of every succeeding month thereafter, i.e. commencing with the 15th May, 1992, an Affidavit shall be filed by the company by the fifteenth of every month before this commission affirming that payments aggregating to Rs.50 lakhs have been disbursed by the company during the previous month by way of repayment of outstanding deposit amounts to the customers in accordance with their priority of cancellation of bookings. Such affidavits should furnish data as to the number of customers who have been paid  and the last of cancellation upto which the customers to whom amounts are no due have been covered by the payments effected every month.

      The Petitioner in O.P. No. 30 of 1990 was not present when this case was heard bu t the submissions of the party have been already heard by us on the previous occasion. We consider that this case should also be governed by this Scheme which we have approved above and the said petition will also stand disposed of by this Order approving and sanctioning the Scheme.

      M/s Lohia Machines Ltd., shall pay a total sum of Rs.10,000/- by way of costs of today's hearing to the complainant and the intervenor, from out of which Rs.6,000/- shall be paid to complainant Mumbai Grahak Panchayat, and the balance of Rs.4,000/- to Akhil Bharatiys Grahak Panchayat, Delhi represnted by Shri S.K. Punshi. The amount of costs shall be paid within four weeks from today.

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