In a rare instance, the Thane district consumer dispute redressal forum held a Thane-based resident as well as a Thane-based developer guilty of failing to abide by an order passed by the forum in 2009, thus sentencing both to two years of simple imprisonment. The forum further directed the two to pay a fine of Rs 10,000 each, failing which the two will be further sentenced to three more months of simple imprisonment.
According to the order passed by the forum, the complainant, Vasudev Gujare, a resident of Thane had filed a case against his flat owner Ashok Parekh, whom pay a monthly rent, and developer Mahendra Jain for failing to hand over the possession of the flat, which the owner had promised him and other tenants of the building in 1997.
The complainant claimed that in 1997, Parekh received a notice from the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC), which had declared the building as dilapidated. He informed all the tenants and promised them a flat, with a area bigger than the flat they were residing in. Gujare claimed that he entered into an agreement with Parekh and accordingly he was allotted a flat on the fourth floor of the building for a total cost of Rs3,65,000. Gujare also paid an advance amount of Rs50,000 to Parekh.
The builder however took almost seven years to raise the building, and built only one-storey. When the complaint approached the owner asking him to hand over the possession of the flat, the owner turned a deaf ear. Gujare then approached the forum and filed a complaint against the owner and developer.
However in 2004, the Thane forum rejected the claim of the complainant on the grounds that there was no proper legal contract between the complainant and the owner. In 2006, Gujare approached the state consumer dispute redressal commission, which turned down the district consumer forum's order, asking it to rethink its order. This time, the Thane district consumer forum, in 2009 passed another order which directed the two to pay Rs 1,75,000 to the complainant as a compensation amount along with an additional amount of Rs 20,000 towards the complainant's mental agony and Rs 10000 toward the complainant's mental agony. The forum had also directed the two to hand over the possession of the flat to the complainant.
However the two did not pay heed to the Thane district forum's order. The complainant had also sent legal notice for the same, but to no effect. "As the complainant had failed to pay heed to the forum's order, thus the two are sentenced to two years of simple imprisonment," reads the order.
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