Consumer seeks Rs 10 mn from Vodafone, NCDRC fines him for frivolous appeal

The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) has asked a complainant to pay Rs 500 as cost for filing "frivolous" and "vexatious" appeal, misusing the statutory processes which are provided for protection of consumer interest.

Uttamkumar Samanta, the complainant who is a Ph.D holder, had sought nearly Rs 10 million compensation from a telecom operator for disconnecting his internet service.

"It is thus appropriate and albeit necessary to give stern advice of caution to the complainant through a monetary deterrent to desist from misusing the statutory processes provided for a consumer," said a bench of NCDRC Presiding Member S M Kantikar and member Dinesh Singh.

Samanta had purchased a post paid internet service plan of Rs 5,500 from a Vodafone store on May 7, 2013, and on May 10 the service was suddenly disconnected due to which he "suffered irreparably".

The apex consumer commission noted that Samanta had paid an aggregate of Rs 5,500 whereas he sought compensation of Rs 99,95,500 which was on the face of it "disproportionately high" and the component-wise break-up of the total compensation was again "unreasonable and absurd".

"It is also to be seen that the time and resources of this Commission have been wasted in such manner and for such evident purpose", the bench said.

It also said that Samanta was a well educated person, holding a doctorate, who prepared tonnes and tonnes of paper, in a misplaced and irrational approach towards consumer justice.

NCDRC also noted that Samanta had earlier used consumer fora in similar manner against Tata Teleservices Limited which was also dismissed by the commission with a cost of Rs 10,000.