RIL to cough up Rs 1.67 lakh for not allotting new number

New Delhi, May 18 (UNI) The National Consumer Commission has ordered telecom major Reliance Infocom Ltd (RIL) to cough up Rs 1.67 lakh as damages for false deposition and not providing a new mobile number when one of its customers changed towns.

The apex consumer court disposed a revision petition filed by the RIL against the order of Chandigarh State Consumer Commission awarding Rs 50,000 compensation to Mr Hari Chand Gupta and asking for lodging a criminal case against a RIL official for deposing falsely that it had already allocated a new mobile number.

The apex consumer court enhanced the amount of damages to Rs 1.67 lakh.

However, the RIL also got some relief with the panel striking down the order of registering a criminal case for false deposition.

''Punitive damages are required to be enhanced so that in future neither officers of the petitioner (RIL) nor officer of other such big companies indulge in such practice,'' the bench said.

Mr Gupta had applied for a mobile phone connection with the RIL under the Dhirubhai Ambani Pioneer offer on March 8, 2003.

He later applied for allocation of new number following transfer to Kurukshetra in Haryana from Chandigarh.

But RIL failed to provide a new number to Mr Gupta at Kurukshetra forcing him to approach a District Consumer forum for redressal which held it guilty of ''deficiency of service'' and asked it to pay Rs 12,250 to him.

Against that order, RIL appealed to State Consumer Commission which rejected the company's plea and further raised the compensation to Rs 50,000 and ordered the initiation of criminal proceeding against its authorised signatory, who had falsely stated before it that the new number had already been allocated to the complainant.

The apex commission, deciding the revision filed by RIL against the order of the State Commission, modified the earlier order by awarding Rs 1.67 lakh compensation, out of which one lakh would be deposited to the consumer welfare fund.

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