Complainant Sunil Kumar has filed the present complaint against the opposite parties U/S 12 of the Consumer Protection Act (for short, C.P.Act.) seeking necessary directions to the opposite parties to  refund Rs.1627/- paid by him as cash on delivery with interest @ 18% PA. Opposite parties be further directed to pay Rs.10,000/- as compensation  alongwith Rs.10,000/- as litigation expenses, in the interest of justice.

2.        The case of the complainant in brief is that he purchased Two Lenovo Power Bank 10,400mAh from opposite parties through online shopping having order ID 110610239 dated 23 February 2017 and paid Rs.1627/- i.e. Rs.1598/- as price of Two Power Bank i.e. Rs.799/- per power bank and Rs.29/- as shipping charges to opposite parties as such he is consumer of the opposite parties. After 3-4 days he got a massage from opposite parties that his order has been cancelled but very next day the delivery of the ordered items were done by opposite parties after collecting the amount. When he opened the courier builty delivered to him he was shocked to see that both the power banks as ordered by him were packed inside that courier, but there was no lead/wire etc. available to charge or use the same. He then talked to customer care executive of opposite parties and complained about the matter, but they said that his order was cancelled as such they are not liable for the delivery of ordered items, but they failed to justify that why the order was cancelled and if the order was cancelled then how anyone other can deliver the same items on same address to him when there was no third party in the deal as the same was between him and opposite parties. It is clear cut case of fraud and misspelling the faulty items to general public by opposite parties and they are befooling the innocent people and looting them as opposite parties did with him. Hence this complaint. 

3.       Upon notice, opposite parties appeared through their counsel and filed their written reply submitting therein that opposite party merely provides an online platform to facilitate transactions between buyers and sellers that the orders so placed through the wesite of the opposite party are placed with the respective merchant/sellers and are fulfilled by them.  It was next submitted that the complainant has proceeded in negligence even after the receipt of the email and SMS by which he was informed and instructed not to accept the delivery of the order and if the same was accepted by them, Shopclues will not be responsible. The complainant has filed to implead the appropriate party in the present complaint which could lead to a miscarriage of justice. The opposite party soon after becoming aware of the alleged grievance of the complainant, in good faith and without prejudice to its rights, addressed the grievance and provided all necessary information to the complainant which he has clearly misconstrued and misunderstood. In light of the said fact, the allegations levelled by the complainant are rendered motivated by ignorance and directed towards harassing the opposite party for monetary gains. The opposite party is neither involved in manufacture nor sale of the product, therefore any liability arising out of the defect or complaint with respect to the impugned product cannot be fastened on to the opposite party. Lastly the complaint has been prayed to be dismissed.

4.      Counsel for the complainant has tendered into evidence affidavit of complainant Ex.C-1 alongwith other document Ex.C-2 and closed the evidence.  

5.       On the other hand, counsel for the opposite party has tendered into evidence affidavit of Sh.Gurika Tandon, Analyst Ex.OP-1 alongwith other documents Ex.OP-2 and Ex.OP-3 and closed the evidence.

6.       We have heard the ld. counsels for the parties and have carefully gone through the record on the file.

7.       Now the first question to be decided is that whether opposite parties comes under the definition of service provider? After considering very objection taken by opposite parties, our opinion is that opposite parties themselves admitted that they are only intermediary but they have accepted the payment for delivering the goods, so they are considered as service providers and once they have accepted the payment, they are responsible and liable for any dispute arising out of it. The plea of the opposite parties is that they have informed the complainant via SMS and e-mail where they have written a ‘Disclaimer’ also. But merely by posting a mail containing ‘Disclaimer’ does not entitle the opposite parties to shed all the responsibility regarding the transaction.

8.      After taking into consideration all the facts and perusing the file minutely, the picture made out is that opposite parties are though intermediary, yet they are delivering the goods and as such they are a delivering agency and that is a service provider. The next question that arises is, “why the opposite arties made delivery when the order was already cancelled”? It is a clear deficiency on the part of the opposite parties that even after cancelling the order, they delivered the product. If they have made delivery then after accepting the money, they should have informed the complainant about returning the incomplete product and send back his money through some medium whatsoever necessary. But they have not done anything in this regard and kept silent. They have supplied the incomplete product and also accepted the amount and even after pointing out by complainant, they did nothing to either supply the complete ordered product or to return the money. In this way opposite parties are held deficient in providing proper service to the complainant as such they are held liable to compensate the complainant for that.

9.       In view of the above discussion we partly allow the present complaint and opposite parties are directed to return the sale price of the power bank i.e. Rs.1627/- to the complainant. Compliance of the order be made within one month from the date of receipt of copy of this order, failing which the opposite parties shall be liable to pay the interest @ 9% per annum on the aforesaid amount of Rs.1627/- from the date of passing of order till the payment is made to the complainant. The opposite parties are also directed to pay Rs.3,000/- as compensation while litigation expenses are assessed at Rs.2,000/- to the complainant.

10.        Copies of the orders be furnished to the parties free of costs. File is ordered to be consigned to the record room.

ANNOUNCED:                           (Rajita Sareen)          (Shri Raj Singh)

JAN. 15, 2019.                            Presiding Member                 Member.

YP.