Consumer court raps firm for selling defective product

By CT reporter
MANGALORE : The Dakshina Kannada District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum has penalised a firm in the city for supplying a defective xerox machine to a customer.
The case : Ashalatha Shetty, wife of Jagannath Shetty of Padavu, who runs a xerox shop at Nantur, had purchased a xerox machine of the Hindustian Copier Services from the Prabhat Automobiles near Jyothi in the city on December 8, 2003. Shetty had paid Rs 80,000 for the new machine and had adjusted the balance Rs 35,000 by returning her old xerox machine to the firm.
But,the new machinery operated well only for 15 days and began to give problems later on, forcing Shetty to incur a loss of nearly Rs 80,000 in ten months.
When a technician Raviraj Shetty was summoned on August 15, 2004 to test the machine, it was found that there was some defect. The customer immediately lodged a complaint with the consumer court seeking refund of the Rs 1.15 lakh being the cost of the machinery apart from Rs 80,000 towards the losses incurred by her.
However, the respondent contended before the court that the complainant cannot be considered customer as the shop did not belong to her but her husband.
However, the court which went through the case came to the conclusion that as the bill was isused in the name of Ashalatha who managed the shop owned by her husband, she herself was the customer and directed the firm to refund the Rs 1.15 lakh being the cost of the machinery with 12 per cent interest apart from Rs 1000 as court expenses within one month.
The court has also directed the firm to take possession of the defective xerox copier.