VIJAY SETHI Vs. DISTRICT ANAGERTELEPHONES

JUDGEMENT

(1.) FIRST Appeal No. 74/94 by Shri Vijay Sethi, Complainant before the State Commission and First Appeal No. 146/94 by the District Manager Telephones and SDO, Telephones, the Opposite Parties before the State Commission are directed against the order dated 16.12.1993 passed by the Haryana State Commission at Chandigarh allowing the complaint and directing the Opposite Parties to pay a compensation of Rs. 20,000/- along with costs of Rs. 2,000/- to the Complainant. The Complainant seeks enhancement in the quantum of compensation and the Opposite Parties seeks dismissal of the complaint.

(2.) SHRI Vijay Sethi is the subscriber of Telephone No. 560707 with STD facility installed at his residence at Kothi No. 200, Sector 6, Panchkula (Haryana). The subscriber is also having another telephone at his business premises with STD facility. Telephone No. 560707 was having dynamic code facility which means that the subscriber is the controller of his own STD and he can use STD whenever he likes and can lock the same to avoid misuse by anyone and for this purpose he has to choose a secret code both for locking and unlocking in his mind not known to anyone except himself. Instead of feeding proper code/digit for locking the STD, admittedly the Complainant used a wrong code for locking the STD, and he made a complaint on 17.10.1992 to the Opposite Parties that the STD facility had wrongly been locked by him by using the wrong code and requested for unlocking the same on payment of relevant charges to be included in the next telephone bill. He requested for prompt action. According to the Complainant inspite of his repeated personal visits and subsequent reminders the STD dynamic code which got locked, however, was not opened and that inaction of the Opposite Parties resulted into business loss and inability to make outstation and overseas calls resulting into a financial loss to the tune of Rs. 2.5 lakhs which was claimed in the complaint and further damages of Rs. 500/- per day from the date of the filing of the complainant till the date STD facility was restored.

(3.) AFTER filing of the complaint, the STD facility was reopened on 20th May, 1993. The State Commission on the basis of material on the record in an elaborate and learned judgment by the President of the State Commission held that the provision of a dynamic code for the STD facility in Electronic Exchanges is now an integral part of the services of telecommunication and any inordinate delay in unlocking the STD dynamic code would be a patent deficiency in the telecommunication services provided to the consumers. The State Commission also found that there has been a grave and inordinate delay in reopening the locked STD dynamic code which the Opposite Parties are bound to do most expeditiously and thus this would be a deficiency in the telecommunication service extended out by the Opposite Parties to the consumers. It was also observed that somewhat callous attitude towards the Complainant and the grave delay consequently merits relief with the consumer jurisdiction. The State Commission expressed that in a situation of the Complainant it is not possible to calculate the compensation with absolute precision and erring on the conservative side, the State Commission quantified the compensation in the round sum of Rs. 20,000/- expressing that it would meet the ends of justice in the present case. The Opposite Parties were directed to tender the aforesaid amount of Rs. 20,000/- along with costs of Rs. 2000/- within one month from the date of the passing of the order.