Consumer court orders in favour of Surat businessman

The price of the car was Rs 40.89 lakh, out of which the complainant paid the “margin amount” of Rs 2.95 lakh. After taking a loan from the HDFC, the bank official present in the showroom agreed on a monthly installment of Rs 58,506 against a loan of Rs 29.12 lakh.

The complainant started paying installment from January 2021 and paid seven installments till July 2021 but did not receive the car, after which he stopped paying the loan. When Shankla contacted Perfect Motors on the phone, he was told that delivery was delayed due to the Covid pandemic.

On September 14, 2021, Shankla moved the Surat consumer court.

After hearing the arguments of both sides, Judge P P Mokhiya passed the order in the complainant’s favour. According to the order, “The Perfect Motors and its proprietor had to pay the margin amount of Rs. 2.95 lakh deposited by the complainant at the rate of 8 percent interest…The complainant who had paid Rs. 3.32 lakh as installments to the bank, should be refunded…The bank should not recover the pending loan amount from the complainant.The Perfect Motors and its proprietor and bank officials should pay Rs 50,000 against the harassment faced by the complainant.”

The court, however, discarded the complaint against Mitsubishi Motors Corporation, New Delhi.

The order stated, “The bank violated the rules of loan agreement. Before dispersing the loan amount to dealer, as per the rule, the bank should receive invoice and insurance cover note of vehicle from dealer. As per the documentary evidence put up by the bank before the court, the applicant had filed loan application on November 28, 2020 and bank had issued the loan approval letter on November 30, 2020. The loan agreement contract document was done on December 1, 2020. As per the rule, the loan agreement should be done prior to the disbursal of the loan amount.”

The court observed, “The complainant was regular in depositing the loan installment with the bank. The complainant had taken a loan for a vehicle which does not exist physically”.

Meanwhile, prosecution lawyer Ghansyam Prajapati told The Indian Express, “We are satisfied with the order. We have checked with Mitsubishi’s company offices in Bangalore, Delhi and Kolkata, and learnt that the company had cancelled its dealership with Perfect Motors in April 2019, however, the accused proprietor still continued doing business.”

The defense lawyer Gopal Vekariya said that “we will go through the court order once and will decide the further course of action”.