B L KUMAR Vs. INTERNATIONAL ENGINEERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Briefly the facts are that the complainant is an ex-serviceman having retired from Indian Air Force. The respondent is a limited company and carrying on the business of providing telephone facilities under the direct agreement with Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (M. T. N. L. ). They advertised in various newspapers calling upon the members of the general public to book the telephone with them for the purpose of Public Call Office (P. C. O. ). The complainant approached the respondent for that purpose and he was provided with one telephone on 24.1.91 for a Public Call Office, which was installed in the space provided by him.

(2.) It is further pleaded that according to the terms of the contract the complainant used to collect the charges from the customers and the amount so charged by him was fed in the computer/instrument which had been provided by the respondent. The authorised representative of the respondent used to visit bis premises and collect the amount every day. Thereafter the respondent used to pay his commission on the total amount and paid the bills of the M. T. N. L. The amount received by the respondent was entered by their representative in a card provided to the Complainant.

(3.) The complainant, on 14.7.92, it is next pleaded, found that the telephone was not working. He approached the respondent for rectifying the same but his request was not attended to by them. He therefore approached the M. T. N. L. and on enquiry it was discovered that the telephone had been disconnected for the reason that they had not deposited the bill of M. T. N. L. since April '92. It is stated by the complainant that inspite of the repeated requests the telephone facility had not been restored by them. Consequently he has claimed an amount of Rs.1,00,000/- as damages for loss of income and reputation.