Real estate firm asked to pay over Rs 13L to a woman

A real estate firm has been asked to pay over Rs 13 lakh to a woman by a consumer forum for not refunding her money paid for a flat despite the project being shelved, holding it as "deficiency of service".
Central Delhi District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, presided by Rakesh Kapoor, asked ARN Infrastructures India Ltd to pay Rs 13,12,450 to south-Delhi resident Menoka Chatarjee.
In its order, the forum noted that the cheques issued by the firm to the woman representing principal amount had been dishonoured on presentation to the bank.
"The complainant (Chatarjee) had approached this forum on April 25, 2013 with the present complaint and even then the opposite party (firm) had not come forward to refund the amount deposited by the complainant," it said.

The forum held the firm guilty of deficiency of service towards the complainant as it had held back the amount of Rs 12,07,450 without any reason and had used it in some other projects.
It directed the firm to refund Rs 12,07,450 to Chatarjee and asked her to pay Rs 1 lakh towards compensation and Rs 5,000 for the cost of litigation.

The woman had told the forum that the firm had launched a project and she had booked a flat in it by depositing Rs 12,07,450 which represented 80 per cent of flat's cost.
Later on, the firm had informed Chatarjee that the project would not be taken up and it issued her three cheques totalling Rs 12,07,450, the principal amount received from her, she said.

On presentation to the bank, however, these cheques had been dishonoured, she claimed.
After that the legal notice sent by Chatarjee to the firm remained uncomplied with, she said.
The firm had said that it had asked the woman several times to receive the amount from its office but she herself failed to come forward to take it.