Marriage palace fined for not refunding booking amount post-cancellation

Ishrat S Banwait

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Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 30

A marriage palace in Zirakpur has been penalised Rs 1.60 lakh for not refunding money after the complainant cancelled the booking 32 hours prior to the function.

The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum passed the order against the proprietor of GK Resorts on the complaint of Gurinder Singh, a city resident.

As per the petition, the marriage of the complainant’ son was fixed for April 10, 2017. The resort was thus booked for the night of April 11 on the occasion of reception. Gurinder paid an advance amount of Rs 1.50 lakh for the same. However, on April 10, 2017, due to a death in the family, the function could not be held.

The resort was informed 32 hours before the function to cancel the booking. The complainant met the opposite party a number of times for refund of the booking amount but to no avail. Eventually, a legal notice was served on August 3, 2017, which also did not fetch the desired results.

In its reply, the opposite party stated that as per the terms and conditions of the booking, the complainant was not entitled to any refund in case of cancellation. Also, if the cancellation was not done 30 days prior to the function, the full amount was to be charged. Further, the opposite party was entitled to the full consideration amount two days before the date of booking/function. It thus pleaded that there was no deficiency on its part.

The judgment stated that it is crystal clear that the function had to be cancelled due to unavoidable circumstances on account of the death of young daughter-in-law of the complainant’s elder brother. The forum observed that the case comes under the category of rarest of rare case being an ‘Act of God’, which was beyond the control of the complainant and his family.

It added that had this tragedy not taken place, there was no need to cancel all the events in the aggrieved family as hundreds of guests were invited from within the country and abroad for the celebration. The terms and conditions, the judgment stated, nowhere cover the ‘Act of God’ and ‘Unforeseen Circumstances’ beyond human control. These are completely silent about the same.

The forum observed that act of the opposite party in flatly refusing to accede to the genuine request of the complainant on humanitarian and extreme compassionate circumstances amounts to deficiency in service and is an indulgence in unfair trade practice. The forum thus directed Rajiv Gupta, proprietor of the GK Resorts, Zirakpur, to refund Rs 1.50 lakh and pay Rs 10,000 as compensation and litigation costs to the complainant.