A charitable trust running a Diagnostic Centre for profit is not a "consumer" within the meaning of Section 2(d) of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986.

1. The appellant, which is a charitable trust, had entered into an agreement with Respondent 1 on 31-10-1988 for the supply of CT scanning unit, an ultrasound machine and an autoanalyser which were to be imported from Japan. These were ultimately supplied by the respondents but the appellant alleged that the machinery supplied by Respondent 1 was defective and, therefore, the appellant filed a claim before the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (for short "the Commission") under the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 (for short "the Act") on 19-3-1993 alleging "deficiency in service". The complaint was dismissed by the Commission on the ground that these machineries were purchased for a commercial purpose by the appellant and, therefore, the appellant was not a "consumer" within the meaning of Section 2(d) of the Act.

2. The Commission found that the Diagnostic Centre run by the appellant had yielded a surplus profit of Rs 7,96,559.59 during the financial year ending 31-3-1991.

3. The first contention which has been raised by learned counsel for the appellant is that the appellant being a charitable trust cannot be said to have any commercial motive as the entire income earned by it is spent on charity and, therefore, the finding recorded by the Commission that it was not a "consumer" within the meaning of the Act as it had earned profit from the use of the machinery supplied by Respondent 1, is not correct. We are not prepared to accept this contention.

4. The definition of "consumer" as set out in Section 2(d) which is reproduced below, does not contemplate what is contended by learned counsel for the appellant. Section 2(d) provides as under:

"2. (d) consumer means any person who,-

(i) buys any goods for a consideration which has been paid or promised or partly paid and partly promised, or under any system of deferred payment and includes any user of such goods other than the person who buys such goods for consideration paid or promised or partly paid or partly promised, or under any system of deferred payment when such use is made with the approval of such person, but does not include a person who obtains such goods for resale or for any commercial purpose; or (ii) hires or avails of any services for a consideration which has been paid or promised or partly paid and partly promised, or under any system of deferred payment and includes any beneficiary of such services other than the person who hires or avails of the services for consideration paid or promised, or partly paid and partly promised, or under any system of deferred payment, when such services are availed of with the approval of the first mentioned person;

Explanation.-For the purposes of sub-clause (i), commercial purpose does not include use by a consumer of goods bought and used by him exclusively for the purpose of earning his livelihood, by means of self-employment."

5. Clause (i) of the definition extracted above contains an "exclusion clause". The words "but does not include a person who obtains such goods for resale or for any commercial purpose" curtail the broad scope of the definition of "consumer". If the goods were purchased for resale or for any commercial purpose, a person would not be a "consumer" in respect of those a goods. Consequently, such a person would not be entitled to approach the Commission for redress if there was any defect in the goods supplied to him or for any other "deficiency in service".

6. Learned counsel for the appellant has contended that the appellant is a registered charitable trust. The objects of the Trust, inter alia, provide as under:

"(a) to promote and help education, medical relief, relief of the poor, and any other object, of general public utility, no (sic) involving carrying on any activity of profit for the benefit of the society at large;

(b) it is clearly understood that the Trust will not undertake any activity for profit and nothing will be done which is not considered as a public charitable object