Provide services to consumer for lockdown period, gym told : The Tribune India

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Chandigarh, July 22

The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, Chandigarh, has directed a gym to provide services to a consumer for the period during which the gym remained closed due to the Covid-induced lockdown.

Puneet Chhabra, a resident of Sector 43, Chandigarh, approached the commission after Athelonics Hybrid Gym, Sector 43, allegedly refused to refund the fees for the period during which it remained closed.

In his complaint, Chhabra said he enrolled for the membership on March 3, 2020, by paying Rs8,000 and Rs5,000 in two instalments. Due to the Covid pandemic, the UT Administration directed closure of various services, including gyms, on March 24, 2020 due to the nationwide lockdown. The gym was allowed to open on August 5, 2020. He said the gym remained closed for 142 days.

Chhabra alleged that despite repeated requests, the gym management was not ready to adjust 142 days in the membership. Alleging the acts of the gym as deficiency in service and unfair trade practice, he filed the complaint.

Nobody from the gym management appeared before the commission to place its version.

After hearing the arguments and examining the records placed by the complainant, the commission said: “Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, lockdown was imposed across the country on the evening of March 24, 2020, by the Government of India as a preventive measure and curb the spread of coronavirus. Due to this, the gym remained closed till August 4, 2020. Under these circumstances, it cannot be said that the opposite party (gym) has committed any sort of deficiency in service or indulged in unfair trade practice by not rendering the promised services to the complainant during that period”.

“However, we are of the considered view that the ends of justice would be met if the complaint is disposed of with a direction to the gym to render the services to the complainant for the remaining 142 days,” the commission said.