IMPORTANT POINT
A person would be a ‘consumer’ even if he is registered for allotment of a residential plot and is waiting for his turn to mature.

ORDER (ORAL)

V.K. Jain, Presiding Member—The petitioner invited applications for allotment of residential plots at Chandigarh. The complainant applied for allotment of a 100 sq. yds. Plot under category ‘A’ (General category) vide application No. 28758. She was declared successful in the draw of lot held on 28.11.2011. However, the allotment was later cancelled vide letter dated 31.05.2012 on the ground that she was not a resident of Punjab/Chandigarh which was an essential eligibility condition for allotment of the plot. Aggrieved from the cancellation of the allotment the complainant approached the concerned District Forum by way of a consumer complaint. The complaint was resisted on two grounds that the complainant was not eligible for the allotment of the plot, and that she was not a consumer of the petitioner.

2. Vide order dated 25.09.2012 the District Forum allowed the consumer complaint and restored the allotment. Compensation quantified at Rs. 50,000/- was also awarded to the complainant along-with cost of litigation quantified at Rs. 5,000/-.

3. Being aggrieved from the order passed by the District Forum, the petitioner approached the concerned State Commission by way of an appeal. The said appeal having been dismissed vide impugned order dated 06.07.2015 the petitioner Authority is before this Commission by way of this revision petition.

4. The first submission of the Ld. counsel for the petitioner is that the complainant cannot be said to be a ‘consumer’ within the meaning of Section 2(1)(d) of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986. Reliance is placed upon the decision of this Commission in Nirmala Devi Vs. Uttar Pradesh Awas Vikas Parishad II(2015) CPJ 36(NC).

5. The decision of this Commission in Nirmala Devi (supra) to the extent it is relied upon reads as under:-

8. The first question which arises for our consideration is as to whether the complainant in these cases can be said to be consumer within the meaning of Section 2(1)(d) of the Consumer Protection Act. The aforesaid provision, to the extent it is relevant provides that consumer means any person who hires or avails of any services for a consideration which has been paid or promised or partly paid and partly promised. The expression ‘service’ has been defined in Section 2(1)(o) of the Act to mean service of any description which is made available to potential users and includes though not limited to the provision of facilities in connection with housing construction. Therefore, the next question which arises for our consideration is as to whether the aforesaid complainants had hired or availed the services of the opposite parties in connection with housing construction.

9. The question of providing services in connection with housing construction, in our view would arise either on allotment of a residential plot or a residential flat which is yet to be constructed, to the applicant or if he is registered and placed in a waiting list, for such an allotment. There would be no question of a person availing or hiring a service in connection with housing construction till either such an allotment is made to him or he is registered for such an allotment. The development of the plots or the construction of houses will be undertaken only for those persons to whom a residential plot or house is allotted, or who is registered for and awaiting allotment of a yet to be developed plot or yet to be constructed house. Also there would be no occasion to undertake the construction of houses for the allottees in a case where a ready builtup house or a fully developed plot is allotted to him, unless, one or more facilities/amenities in relation to the said house/plot are yet to be provided by the concerned Development Authority.

The legal proposition which emerges from the above rendered decisions of the Hon’ble Supreme Court is that a person, who is allotted a flat or a plot to be developed by a statutory authority such as Delhi Development Authority or Avas Vikas Parishad a