Grapes sent to Germany instead of UK,bank to pay Rs 2.46 lakh

Germany.

Moreover,More had to wait for almost a month for the documents to reach UK,so as to prove that More had not defaulted on the consignment.

On August 12 last year,More approached the consumer court through advocate D G Sant seeking compensation of

Rs 13.32 lakh.

The Bank through its lawyer Anil Gokhale submitted to the court that they had assigned DHL courier company and the mistake was on their part. Gokhale also said the compensation of Rs 13.32 lakh was too high considering that More had not submitted proof of payment of demurrage charges and commission. The bank submitted the required documents to the court and requested that the complainant’s application be rejected. After hearing both sides,the court observed that the Bank had agreed that the consignment was wrongly delivered to Germany instead of UK but blames the courier company for the mistake. “Considering that the Bank used to pay the courier company for its services,it became the Bank’s agent. Therefore,there is no substance in the Bank’s argument that they are not responsible for the courier company’s mistake,” the order states.

The court observed that More was promised a rate of 2.05 GBP (British Pounds) and since his consignments had 1600 cartons,he has incurred losses of 3280 british pounds and not of Rs 13.32 lakh as claimed.

The court panel of Sujata Patankar,member of Additional Pune District Consumer Forum,and Pranali Sawant,president of the Forum ordered the Bank to pay Rs 2.6 lakh with 12 per cent interest from June 23,2009 to the day when they has sent notice to the Bank.

The court also ordered a payment of Rs 15,000 for physical and mental harassment of More and Rs 5,000 towards complaint charges.