Mr. Justice D.P. Wadhwa, President - (1.)Complainant, a voluntary consumer association, is aggrieved by the order dated 28.12.1994 of the Gujarat State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, dismissing its complaint. Complaint pertained to claim made on behalf of some subscribers of telephones whose telephones remained out of order for more than 7 days or 14 days in the city of Ahmedabad on account of cloud burst on 9.7.1993. Because of the unprecedented downpour many telephone lines became dead. Complainant sought rebate in rental @ Rs. 180/- per month of those subscribers whose telephones remained out of order for more than 14 days and damages @ Rs. 6/- per day of those subscribers whose telephones remained out of order for 7 days or less. A list of the subscribers on whose behalf complaint was filed, was annexed to the complaint. There was a further claim of Rs. 7.50 per subscriber on account of mental tension, loss of business etc. All these claims for damages/complainant comes to Rs. 4,80,750/-, below the jurisdiction of the State Commission. In order to invoke jurisdiction of the State Commission complainant claimed costs of Rs. 25,000/-, thus making a total claim over Rs. 5.00 lakhs. Cost is always with the jurisdiction of the Court and does not form part of the claim.
(2.)An objection was raised by the General Manager, Ahmedabad Telecom District that claim was unduly exaggerated to bring the complaint within the jurisdiction of the State Commission. We are of the view, the objection was well taken. Action of the complainant to add Rs. 25,000/- as costs to the claim of Rs. 4,80,750/- to make it over Rs. 5.00 lakhs was certainly questionable. State Commission should have relegated the complainant to the concerned District Forum. We cannot approve such an effort on the part of the complainant to circumvent the provisions of law in such a manner. Moreover it is not a case for claim of compensation for alleged mental tension, inconvenience, loss of business etc. when admittedly extensive damage had been caused to telephone lines in the city due to devastating heavy rain and the General Manager, Ahmedabad Telecom District and the staff did their best to restore the line in shortest possible time. A voluntary consumer association is expected to act in a rational and conscientious manner.
(3.)It is the case of the respondents themselves that because of the cloud burst on 9.7.1993 whole city of Ahmedabad was flooded. It is further submitted that in the city there were various developmental activities like widening of roads, resurfacing, laying of pipelines, construction of foot-path, laying of electric cables which were being undertaken by local agencies and there was no co-ordination among them. On that account there was severe and extensive damage to telephone cables. It was also pointed out that in most cases damage to cables appeared during the heavy rains when rain water entered into the cables and fault developed. It was pleaded that because of all these factors and cloud burst cable faults increased and it was all beyond the control of the department and that it was an act of God and it was not humanly possible to put everything right. In this view of the matter department issued a press note on 25.7.1993 informing the subscribers that department would grant rebate in rent if the telephone of any subscriber had remained continuously out of order for a period of 7 days or more. Union Minister of State for Communication also made a public announcement on 2.10.1993 that those telephone subscribers whose telephones or telephone lines had remained out of order for more than 14 days they would not be charged the monthly rental.