North Park Hotel asked to pay Rs 10K compensation to Panchkula resident

Panchkula, June 23

The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission Panchkula has directed North Park Hotel, the opposite party (OP), to pay a compensation of Rs 10,000 to city resident for not refunding the booking amount deposited for his marriage function before the onset of the Covid lockdown in March 2020.

Commission president Satpal has also directed the opposite party (OP) to pay nine per cent interest per annum on the booking amount of Rs 1.5 lakh from the date of filing complaint till realisation of the amount by complainant.

The commission stated: “The OP shall comply with the directions/order within a period of 45 days from the date of communication of this order failing which the complainant shall be at liberty to approach this commission for initiation of proceedings under Section 71/72 of the Consumer Protection Act, against the them.”

Advocate Abhay Garg, a resident of Sector 20, Panchkula, in his complaint to the commissioner stated that he was searching for a suitable place for his marriage and came in contact with the OP, who showed venue to him. After seeing the property, he liked the pool side venue and the same was booked on February 2, 2020, for April 4 and 5, 2020, after discussing the food menu, decoration and also the cost for the same.

Eventually, the OP gave a rough estimate of Rs 6.45 lakh for two days function and the complainant paid Rs 1.5 lakh in advance. However, in March, there was worldwide outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic and subsequently, lockdown was imposed at the national level in India from March 23, 2020, for 21 days.

Subsequently, the complainant contacted and discussed the prevailing situation with the OP as his marriage functions had got affected due to the unforeseen pandemic. The OP asked complainant to send message about the postponement of his functions.

The complainant sent message from his WhatsApp number 9569486156 to the OP that his marriage date was not decided yet as he did not know when exactly the lockdown would end. The complainant asked for the OP’s confirmation on his message. After receiving message from complainant the OP did not revert. After this incident, the OP started avoiding complainant’s phone calls and also denied to return Rs 1.5 lakh booking amount stating that it was non-refundable.

The complainant served a legal notice to the OP on August, 8, 2020, and October 6, 2021, but no response was received from them.

Counsel for the OP averred that the complainant had himself postponed the marriage function. The next submission of the counsel was that the OP had paid some amount to vendors for flower decoration, grocery, catering and other services for the proposed marriage function. And thus, the alleged amount of Rs 1.5 lakh was not liable to be refunded to the complainant, the counsel added.

The counsel further said that the OP was willing to give credit note of Rs 1.5 lakh to the complainant, which could be availed by him in another six months for any function.

The commission observed that this contention was also not tenable being baseless and meritless. There was no documentary evidence on record in support of the contentions that OP had made payments to vendor for flower decoration, the commission stated. And thus, in the absence of any such evidence in support of the contentions of the OP, the objection was rejected, the commission ruled.