National Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission: The Commission held that if a complaint is filed beyond a period of two years from when the cause of action has happened the same will not be entertained, unless there are sufficient reasons for condoning the delay in filing the appeal.
The Consumer Forum through a Division Bench, comprising of, B.C. Gupta, Presiding Member and S.M. Kantikar, Member dismissed an appeal filed by M/S. Kiran Gems Pvt. Ltd. The brief facts, being that the appellant company had purchased an insurance policy from the respondent, to cover all the damages that may arise in the normal course of business ,but upon the actual event of an abnormal activity, the Insurance Company did not entertain the full claim of the appellant and the same being under dispute between the two parties, in the present case. The appellant also contested that the Insurance company owed a total sum of Rs 35,15,014 to them, and further argued that the dismissal of their previous complaint regarding the same matter (Miscellaneous Application, MA/90/2011) is not valid.
The Commission held that the appeal was filed beyond the mentioned time period of 2 years and because of this delay the appellant cannot be heard. The Bench also referred to the judgment of Anshul Aggarwal v. New Okhla Industrial Development Authority, (2011) 14 SCC 578 in which the Hon’ble Apex Court held that:
“It is also apposite to observe that while deciding an application filed in such cases for condonation of delay, the Court has to keep in mind that the special period of limitation has been prescribed under the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 for filing appeals and revisions in consumer matters and the object of expeditious adjudication of the consumer disputes will get defeated if this Court was to entertain highly belated petitions filed against the orders of the Consumer Foras.”
The Bench ordered the dismissal of the appeal because there was a delay of 2178 days in filing the complaint and no remarkable justification was given by the appellant while explaining this delay. [M/s Kiran Gems Pvt. Ltd. v. Oriental Insurance Co. Ltd., Appeal Number 1718 of 2016, decided on 12-12-2017]
