SECRETARY SOUTH WESTERN RAILWAY Vs. K VELAYUDHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE complainant, who is respondent herein, approached the District Forum with a complaint that the opposite party who is petitioner herein, did not allot the site as promised and, therefore, he demanded the refund of the amount of Rs.2,40,000/- deposited by him with the OP Society alongwith interest. However, while the OP Society refunded the amount of advance of Rs.2,40,000/- to the complainant, it did not pay any interest thereon during the period when the advance remained deposited with the society. On appraisal of the issues and evidence adduced by the parties, the District Forum accepted the complaint by its order dated 26.08.2010 and directed the OP Society to pay interest @10% p.a. from the respective dates of the deposit of the amount till 12.04.2010. THE OP was also directed to pay a sum of Rs.1,000/- to the complainant towards cost of proceedings. THE appeal filed by the OP Society before the State Commission also did not find favour and came to be dismissed thereby confirming the order of the District Forum. THE challenge in this revision petition is to this impugned order of the State Commission passed on 19.01.2011.

(2.) WE have heard learned counsel for the petitioner society and perused the concurrent orders accepting the complaint passed by the fora below. The limited issue before us is in respect of the payment of interest on the amount of deposit which remained deposited with the petitioner society for different periods. The contention of the counsel of petitioner society is that the society is a no profit no loss organization and has no provision for payment of interest on such advance / deposits made by the members for allotment of plots. He further submitted that there was no agreement either to pay the interest on the advance amount paid by the complainant towards the site value. In this context, learned counsel for the petitioner has placed reliance on the judgement of this Commission in the case of V. Kalyanam & Anr. Vs. Navin Housing and Properties (Pvt.) Ltd & Ors. [I (2008) CPJ 415 (NC)].