HYDERABAD: A district consumer forum here has directed ‘More’ super market to pay Rs 5,000 as compensation to a senior citizen, who found insects in a packet of moong dal he bought about 20 months ago.
S.Viswanadham purchased 1kg Moong Dal from the Chikadapally branch of ‘More’ super market on November 7, 2013. To his surprise, when he opened the packet there were small insects in the packet.
Viswanadham claimed that he went back to the super market immediately to show them the insects in the packet but got no reply from the management of the super market. Left with no option, he filed a complaint in the district consumer forum to get compensation.
On the other hand, the super market sought for dismissal of the complaint citing that there is no deficiency of service and raised doubts about the involvement of the trade rivals trying to ruin the store’s reputation. It also held that they have a special quality control department to supervise the regional processing centre having a state-of-the-art machinery for cleaning the products such as grains, pulses, dal etc and claimed that there is no scope for the product to be insect infested.
It also submitted an analyst issued test report reading ‘Sample Condition at receipt is found OK’. But the court rejected the evidence saying that the opposite party has to send the sample through the court for analyst report instead of sending the sample directly. The court opinined that the opposite party might have sent the good material for obtaining the test report. They said that the opinion of the expert is just a piece of evidence but not a substantiate piece of evidence. “The evidence affidavit of the analyst is not filed before this Forum and mere marking of the test report is not a sufficient proof,” the bench said.
The Hyderabad-II District Consumer Forum, comprising president T Simhachalam and member P Kasturi, passed an order in favour of Viswanadham, holding that there was an unfair trade practice and deficiency of service. The forum had directed the super market to pay Rs.5,000 towards the cost of the material purchased, compensation and other costs.