GUJARAT STATE CO-OPERATIVE HOUSING FINANCE CORPORATION LTD Vs. AMBEDKAR CO OPERATIVE HOUSING SOCIETY LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner in these three revision petitions is the same, viz. , the Gujarat State Co-operative Housing Finance Corporation Ltd. (hereafter, the GHFC) and the main issues are similar, though the respondents are different. Hence we deal with these petitions by a common order. Incidentally, the initial name of this body seems to have been Gujarat State Co-operative Housing Finance Society Ltd. the stage at which it became a Corporation is not clarified.

(2.) THE petition challenges the order dated 17. 11. 2003 of the Gujarat State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (hereafter, the State Commission) in first appeal no. 288 of 2003. By this order, the State Commission upheld the order dated 28. 04. 2003 of the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, Banaskantha (hereafter, the District Forum) in consumer complaint no. 171 of 2002. The District Forum had allowed the complaint of the original complainant (respondent before us; hereafter referred to as the complainant)) by the said order and directed the GHFC refund to the complainant the share money of Rs. 12,000/- deposited by it with the GHFC and also pay costs of Rs. 2,500/ -.

(3.) THE facts (common to all the three petitions before us) are that the GHFC is a State-level body established by the Government of Gujarat (Gog) under the Gujarat State Co-operative Societies Act, 1961 (hereafter, the GSCS Act ). During the relevant period, the GHFC was engaged in extending credit to the primary co-operative housing societies operating in the State for construction of residential houses for their respective members. Based on its equity capital (the principal contributor to which was probably the Gog, though this has not been clarified at any stage in these petitions) and specific guarantees of the Gog, GHFC raised, from time to time, loans on concessional terms from the Life Insurance Corporation of India Ltd. (LIC ). The borrowed funds were then on-lent to the primary co-operative housing societies in the State, subject to the terms of the LICs sanction and orders of the Gog. For this purpose, each applicant co-operative housing society had to, inter alia, acquire shares of the GHFC in stipulated proportion to the loan availed of.