ORDER

The present Revision Petition (RP) has been filed by the Petitioner against Respondent as detailed above, under section 21(b) of Consumer Protection Act, 1986, against the order dated 19.12.2017 of the State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, Punjab (hereinafter referred to as the ‘State Commission’), in First Appeal (FA) No. 267/2017 in which order dated 16.01.2017 of District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, Fatehgarh Sahib (hereinafter referred to as District Forum) in Consumer Complaint (CC) No. 82/2016 was challenged, inter alia praying for setting aside the order dated 19.12.2017 passed by the State Commission.

2. The Revision Petitioner(s) (hereinafter also referred to as Opposite Party) was Appellant before the State Commission and Opposite Party-1 before the District Forum and the Respondent (hereinafter also referred to as Complainant) was Respondent-1 before the State Commission in FA/267/2017 and Complainant before the District Forum in Complaint No. 82/2016.

3. The present Revision Petition has been filed with a delay of 57 days as pointed out by the Registry. IA/10593/2018 has been filed for Condonation Delay. Delay in filing the RP is condoned after considering the reasons mentioned in the application for condonation of delay and as adduced during the hearing. Application for condonation of delay stands disposed off.

4. Notice was issued to the Respondent on 30.05.2018. Respondent did not appear despite service of notice, hence, proceeded ex parte. Petitioner filed Written Arguments on 23.08.2023.

5. Brief facts of the case, as emerged from the complaint, from the RP, order of the State Commission, order of the District Forum and other case records are that:—

The complainant/respondent herein purchased a TATA LPT 1109 by getting the same financed from the OP/Petitioner herein by taking loan of Rs.7,50,000/-. On 29.06.2015 Loan Agreement was executed between the Petitioner and the Respondent. As per the terms of agreement, the vehicle being purchased by the Respondent was hypothecated as a security against the loan advanced by the Petitioner, the interest on the said loan was agreed to be charged at the rate of 12.54% p.a., the loan was to be repaid in instalments for 47 months payable on 13th day of every month starting from 13th August, 2015 and ending on 13th June, 2019. The complainant had paid loan amount upto 9th installments. The complainant alleged that OP did not provide the copy of Loan Account Statement showing decrease in loan installment from 24,000/- to 16,000/- as assured, despite repeated request of the complainant. Therefore, the complainant had stopped making payment of further loan installments. On 22.06.2016 - Agents of the OP forcefully took the possession of the vehicle and did not return it on the request of complainant. On 07.07.2016, the complainant served legal notice to the OP seeking return of the said vehicle. In reply to the same, the OP had supplied loan data sheet to the complainant wherein the loan installment is mentioned as 23,970/- p.m. for 47 months. The OP was charging interest @ 14% p.a. illegally in place of 7% p.a. Complainant was ready and willing to pay the outstanding loan amount with interest @7% p.a., but OP did not pay any heed to the complainant’s request. Therefore, the complainant filed CC/82/2018 before the District Forum, Fatehgarh Sahib seeking direction against the OP to handover the subjected truck back to the complainant plus award of 1 lakh as damages and 10,000/- as cost of proceedings.

6. Vide Order dated 16.01.2017, in the CC No. 82/2016, the District Forum while allowing the complaint passed the following order:

“a) To hand over the truck bearing registration No. PB-11BN-5597, TATA LPT 1109, Engine No. 497TC92AWY804288, Chassis No. MAT457403D7B02641, Model 2013 along with all the original documents relating to the said vehicle after receiving the normal due instalments in six equal monthly instalments without charging any penalty or othe