Consumer forum imposes fine of 5k on chief post master for deficiency of service

 KANPUR: The Consumer Protection Forum,KanpurNagar, on Friday ordered chief post master, KanpurNagar, to pay Rs 5,000 to complainant within 30 days of the order for deficiency of service.

Complainant Ashok Kumar Pandey had moved the Forum claiming that he lost an opportunity to land a job and earn his bread and butter owing to the deficiency of service. His application form for a job in Barrage NirmanKhand-II, irrigation department, Phoolbagh, was rejected due to delayed delivery.

In his petition, Pandey claimed that he was unemployed and had applied against an advertisement of the above job. The last date of submission of form was February 18, 2009 and he had sent his form through speed post on February 16. Pandey claimed that his application form reached the irrigation department on February 20 and was not entertained. The postal department returned his form with a note of refusal.

The claimant sought Rs 50,000 from the postal department as damages for not delivering the application on time and the mental agony caused by it.

Appearing before the Forum, the postal department contradicted the charges of deficiency of services. In a written submission, the department claimed that letter was delivered on February 20. As per norms of speed post services, the letter is to be delivered within 72 hours of the date of registry. The department said that Pandey's complaint be rejected as the application was delivered within due course of time.

Forum president LV Singh and member Ganesh Prasad in their order observed that speed post must be delivered within 48 hours but even if the claim of 72 hours was considered then application should have been delivered on February 19. However, the marking of refusal was done on February 20 at 12.45 pm, which indicated that the application form reached its destination on the fourth day.

The Forum said that it was a fit case of deficiency of service and liable to be awarded. The forum awarded the complaint and imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 on chief post master.

Source : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com