City jeweller to pay Rs7L for ‘selling’ inferior items

Ishrat S Banwait

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Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 22

A leading city jeweller has been fined Rs 2.15 lakh for selling inferior gold jewellery. Besides, punitive damages of Rs 5 lakh have been slapped for a larger societal interest.

M/S Nikka Mal Babu Ram and Sons, Sector 22, has also been asked to replace the defective gold bangles and gold chain with 22 carat jewellery or refund the current market price of the valuables.

In his complaint to the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, Raj Kumar of Sector 41 stated that on November 8, 2000, he had purchased two units of kada (bangles) and a chain of 22 carat from the store. He had also purchased four gold bangles of 22 carat, weighing 51.77 gram, for Rs 28,967 on November 22, 2000.

On February 15, 2016, he came across a news item in a local newspaper that the same jeweller had been booked for selling 16.25-carat gold in the name of 22 carat to a Panchkula resident.

Kumar grew suspicious and got his jewellery checked from a certified lab in Delhi, which revealed that the same had been covered with inferior metals like silver, copper and zinc with a layer of 22-carat gold on inner and outer surfaces of the bangles in a way that actual quality of gold used in bangles may not be established during routine check.

The overall purity of gold was found to be 64.9 per cent (15.5 carat). The weight of bangles in March 2016 was only 41 grams. The quality of gold chain was also found to be 81.2% (19.5 carat).

The complainant had returned kada to the store long back and the lock of the chain had broken and lost. In 2000, the jeweller had issued only quality certificate for kada and chain, and a bill only for bangles for the reasons best known to it. Thus, he had duped the complainant by indulging in unfair trade practice.

The jeweller replied that the complaint was not maintainable and time barred and that it does not disclose a consumer dispute. It was also claimed that gold was not tested from an accredited lab.

The forum concluded that the jeweller had employed unfair trade practice/deceived the complainant and there may be cases where there are many unsuspecting consumers who may not have the opportunity to understand the gold purchased on the pretext of 22 carat, while it is actually 15 carat or even less. 

The forum observed that the punitive damages were a sort of economic punishment awarded to the jeweller. “An exceptional case where this remedy had to be pressed,” the forum observed. Rs 5 lakhs as punitive damages imposed on the opposite party were for the welfare/legal aid of poor consumers and shall be deposited by the jeweller in the Consumer Legal Aid Fund account.