Man asked to pay Rs 50K for making false averments to NCDRC

The apex consumer commission has slapped fine of Rs 50,000 on a man for making false averments before it and for casting uncalled for aspersions on a state consumer commission.
National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC), presided by Justice V B Gupta, asked West Bengal resident Noor Islam Mondal to pay "punitive damages" of Rs 50,000, while dismissing his appeal against the order of Kolkata State Consumer Commission.
According to Mondal's plea, a district forum had asked a company Anklist Exim Inc to replace a defective gold testing machine sold to him and also to pay him Rs 55,000.
The company had then challenged the forum's decision in the state commission, which modified it and directed the company to only pay Rs 55,000 to him, it said.

Aggrieved by the commission's order, Mondal approached NCDRC, claiming that his counsel had deliberately misled the state consumer commission by wrongly submitting that the company had replaced the defective machine, it said, adding that the machine was still lying in his custody and had not been repaired.
After going through documents, NCDRC noted that Mondal's submissions before the state commission that he had received the machine and the legal notice sent by his counsel to the firm that it was yet to be received were contradictory.
"The present petition...Is hereby dismissed with punitive damages of Rs 50,000 for making false averments...And also for casting uncalled aspersions on the state commission," NCDRC said.

In its order, the apex commission also said that "it is well settled that if any litigant approaches any judicial fora by making false assertions in its complaint and tries to mislead the judicial fora, then such litigant is not entitled to any relief in equity. Such petition should be thrown away at the threshold itself.