Indian Express 13.10.2010
Consumer panel turns down ‘illegal’ PUDA demand from flat allottee
Express News Service Tags : Punjab Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, Punjab Urban Planning and Development Authority Posted: Wed Oct 13 2010, 04:21 hrs
Chandigarh: The Punjab Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has turned down the demand made by the Punjab Urban Planning and Development Authority (PUDA), Amritsar, from the allottee of a flat to pay Rs 26,860 for defaulting on payment of installments, including penalty and interest.Joginder Pal Singh, a resident of Amritsar, was allotted an HIG flat by PUDA in 1989. When he applied for a no-objection certificate (NOC) for the plot, PUDA told him to pay Rs 26,860, though he had been regularly paying the installments.
Joginder moved the Consumer Disputes Forum, Amritsar, challenging the demand. In 2003, the forum directed PUDA to levy charges of Rs 6,800 only, as per Clause 7 of the terms and conditions of the allotment letter. PUDA challenged the order in the Punjab Consumers Commission, Chandigarh.
Adjudicating the case, commission president Justice S N Aggarwal and members Lt Col Darshan Singh and Amarpreet Sharma observed that Joginder had been regular with the installments and whenever he defaulted, he had paid the double installment next month.
According to the terms and conditions of the allotment letter, PUDA was entitled to claim ‘liquidated damages’ in case the allottee failed to pay any installment. But, the commission observed, the demand for Rs 26,860 raised by PUDA did not include non-payment of any installment. “When no installment is payable by the respondent, PUDA cannot demand liquidated damages for all installments. Moreover, at some place, they are demanding Rs 170 per installment, somewhere Rs 340 and somewhere Rs 510, without giving the reasons for this variation. This makes the demand unbelievable, unreliable and unacceptable,” it noted.
Stating that the demand for Rs 26,860 was illegal, the commission ruled that the allottee could be charged only Rs 6,800 as liquidation damages. The commission dismissed the appeal filed by PUDA and directed it to pay litigation costs of Rs 1,000 to Joginder.
