PUBLIC HEALTH ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT Vs. UPBHOKTA SANRAKSHAN SAMITI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The short question raised in this Revision Petition is whether the State Commission was right in setting aside the order of the District Forum returning the complaint petition for presentation before the proper forum on the ground that the subject matter of the complaint was beyond the pecuniary jurisdiction of the District Forum.

(2.) The complaint was preferred by a body called Consumer Protection Committee, Jodhpur (Upbhokta Sanrakshan Samiti, Jodhpur) seeking to recover from the Public Health Department, Jodhpur compensation for alleged negligence on its part resulting in a large number of persons in the Jodhpur city getting infected by jaundice which spread out in epidemic form. It is stated in the complaint petition that though the names and addresses of only 46 persons are mentioned therein specifically, there were thousands of other sufferers who are similarly placed and that the complaint is filed on behalf of all of them also. The prayer in the complaint petition is that every 'student victim' of jaundice should be awarded a compensation of Rs. 20,000/-, every 'general victim' Rs. 10,000/- and the legal representatives of persons who succumbed to the illness of jaundice should be compensated at the rate of Rs. 1 lakh each.

(3.) Under Section 11 of the Consumer Protection Act, the District Forum is vested with jurisdiction to entertain complaints only in cases where the value of the goods and services and the compensation, if any, claimed is less than Rs. 1 lakh. In paragraph 4 of the complaint petition it is specifically mentioned that quite a few deaths have been reported and atleast one death with jaundice occurred in Mahatma Gandhi Hospital itself. When the prayers in the said petition were subsequently amended before the District Forum, the complainant has stated in sub-para 4(b) of para 2 of the amendment petition that hundreds of students suffered from jaundice during the month of February and March, 1989. The exact number of 'general victims' is not specified but the averments in the petition would indicate that there were thousands of them. From these averments and prayers contained in the petition itself it is manifest that the value of the compensation claimed in the petition by far exceeds the amount of Rs. 1 lakh.