Mr. Justice K.C. Bhargava, President—This is an appeal against the judgment and order dated 5.5.1995 passed by District Consumer Forum, Dehradun in Complaint Case No. 570 of 1994.

2. The facts of the case stated in brief are that the complainant purchased National Savings Certificates (hereinafter called the NSCs) worth Rs. 53,000/- from General Post Office, Shahjahanpur. The said NSCs were payable on presentation on any of the Post Offices. The opposite party No. 1, Union of India, has branches all over India including Dehradun.

3. On 19.10.1985 there has been a theft in the house of the complainant and the NSCs besides other articles were stolen from the house of the complainant. The matter was immediately reported to the police station and the Postal Authorities. The NSCs worth Rs. 40,000/- were paid by the Post Office, but payment of NSCs worth Rs. 13,000/- remained unpaid. The maturity value of these certificates was Rs. 26,000/-. The complainant wrote several letters to the opposite parties for issuing duplicate NSCs for payment and also visited Shahjahanpur and Lucknow in connection with these NSCs. The payments were not made by the opposite parties. When the complainant