A.K. Bhattacharjee, President - This is a complaint under Section 17 of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986. The complainant is a firm named Electro Service. In short the allegations made in the complaint are as follows:-

2. The complainant purchased a car from O.P. No.2, M/s. S.R.F. Finance Ltd. on the basis of a hire purchase agreement. One of the conditions of this agreement was that the car should be kept duly insured under the Act at the instance of complainant who was the hire-purchaser. Accordingly the complainant got the car insured with the Oriental Insurance Co. Ltd. Division Office Howrah, P-4, Dobson Lane, Howrah -711 10.1 through the financier S.R.F. Finance Co. Ltd. According to the arrangement with the parties the premium was paid in advance for two years and the S.R.F. Finance Ltd. duly insured the car with the aforesaid Insurance Co. at its Howrah Office. Subsequently the complainant wrote to the S.R.F. Finance Ltd. that on account of some difficulties faced by them in transacting/communicating premium with the present insurer they had decided to shift the coverage of insurance to the Division-IV of the Oriental Insurance Company at Stephen House, Calcutta. Accordingly instructions were given to S.R.F. Finance not to renew the insurance at the Howrah Office of the company. Simultaneously the complainant got a second insurance in respect of the car at the Division IV at Stephen House.

3. Unfortunately the car made an accident and it gave right to an insurance claim which the complainant preferred against the Insurance Co. The claim was investigated, but due to some procedural anamoly the complainant found difficult to get his dues from the Company.

4. The difficulty was created by the fact that on the basis of the instruction received from the complainant the S.R.F. Finance had cancelled the renewed insurance after the expiry of the first year of insurance. There was an internecine misunderstanding between the two Divisions of the insurance company and the poor victim was the complainant itself. The Howrah Division Office refused to pay the insurance claim on the ground that the insurance made with their Division Office was cancelled at the request of the complainant itself. There was some misunderstanding from the Stephen House Division also which inspite of the renewal of the insurance at their office raised some legal objections. The complainant has made the S.R.F. Finance Ltd. from whom it has purchased the car responsible for his plight. Its grievances against the said financier are that they had cancelled the coverage of the insurance for the period relevant to the accident surreptitiously and exposed the firm to the risk of prosecution for defaulting of statutory obligation for miming the car without the insurance coverage. Its further complaint is that the financier had deliberately harassed them by accepting the accident damages intimation providing the specified claim form, approving repair estimate through their surveyor and sanction thereof etc.

5. Both the O.Ps. namely S.R.F. Finance Ltd. and the Insurance Co. have contested the claim of the complainant by filing separate written objections. The case of the S.R.F. Finance was that the complainant was a hire-purchaser of the car in question from them and that under the agreement the purchaser was entitled to acquire ownership of the car after payment of all dues and on payment of a token fee of Re.1/- for exercising option to purchase the car. This O.P. alleged that the complainant had fallen short of their promise and did not pay the required amounts stipulated under the agreement. According to this O.P. they had made suitable arrangement for the insurance of the car as per term of the agreement at the express request of the complainant and they had cancelled the second year's insurance coverage at the request of the complainant itself. This O.P. admits that after the cancellation of the insurance they had taken back the premium money which they had