The court established that a consumer complaint is not maintainable when a civil suit is already pending for the same cause of action, and two parallel proceedings cannot run simultaneously.

ORDER :

R.S. Sharma, President—This appeal is directed against the order dated 22nd March, 2018, passed by District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, Durg (C.G.) (henceforth “District Forum”) in Complaint Case No. C.C./2017/476. By the impugned order, learned District Forum, has allowed the complaint of the complainants and directed that:

(a) The O.P. will pay a sum of Rs. 16,00,000 (Rupees sixteen lakh) to the complainants within period of one month from the date of order.

(b) The O.P. will pay interest @ 7% p.a. on the above amount to the complainants from the date of filing of the complaint i.e. 12.7.2017.

(c) The O.P. will pay a sum of Rs. 50,000 (Rupees Fifty Thousand) towards compensation for mental agony to the complainants.

(d) The O.P. will pay a sum of Rs. 10,000 (Rupees ten thousand) towards cost of litigation to the complainants.

2. Briefly stated the facts of the complaint of the complainants are that the complainants and the O.P. are knowing each other and they are having good relationship. The O.P. is doing work of sale of residential plots situated at Village Kugda, P.H. No. 3, Revenue Circle 72, Tahsil Patan, District Durg (C.G.), in instalment. The complainants contacted the O.P. for purchasing residential plot, then the O.P. told the complainant that at Village Kugda, the cost of plot is very high but as they are familiar with each other, therefore, the O.P. will sell the plot to the complainants at reasonable price and if after purchasing the plot, if the complainants want to resale the plots due to any reason, then they can sale the plot to the O.P. on double price, because at that place a big colony, is to be constructed. Because both the parties are familiar to each other, the O.P. agreed to provide the facility to pay the price of the plots measuring 1,500 sq. ft. @ Rs. 330 and Rs. 390 in the instalment and to sale the plot to the complainants. On the basis of consent of the O.P. and the complainants, agreements were executed. In Clause 12 of the agreements, it is clearly mentioned that if the complainants deposit the full amount of cost of plots and after 48 months, if the complainants wish to sale the above plots, then the O.P. will purchase the plots at the of Rs. 660 per sq. ft. from the complainant and @ Rs. 780 per sq. ft. from the complainant No. 2. For the two plots, in the instalments the complainant No. 1 K.K.T. Apparao deposited Rs. 4,95,000 and complainant No. 2 Smt. K. Parvati deposited a sum of Rs. 5,20,000 with the O.P. Thus, the complainants deposited total amount of Rs. 10,15,000 with the O.P. for which the O.P. provided receipts to the complainant. The complainants had deposited the entire cost of the plots with the O.P. The complainants were in need of money, therefore, they expressed their desire to again sale the plot, which was purchased by them, to the O.P., as per conditions of the agreement, then the O.P. agreed to repurchase the plots from the complainants and issued two cheques bearing cheque Nos. 219675 and 219679 dated 25.11.2016 and 25.12.2016 of the I.C.I.C.I. Bank Ltd., Branch Raipur for Rs. 4,95,000 each in the name of complainant No. 1 and put his signatures in the cheques and provided the same to complainant No. 1. The O.P. also issued two cheques bearing cheque No. 221967 and 221968 dated 25.2.2017 and 25.12.2017 of I.C.I.C.I. Bank Limited, Branch Raipur for Rs. 5,20,000 each in the name of the complainant No. 2 and put his signatures in the cheques and provided the same to the complainant No. 2. Prior to depositing the above cheques in the bank by the complainant, the O.P. obtained the above cheques from the complainant and again issued cheque of Rs. 10,40,000 in the name of the complainant No. 1 and cheque of Rs. 5,60,000 in the name of the complainant No. 2. Thus the O.P. issued cheque for total amount of Rs. 16,00,000 and after putting his signatures in the above cheques, provided the same to the complainants. The O.P. paid remaining amount of Rs. 4,30,000 to the comp