Failure to deliver money order costs top officers dear

Sandeep Rana

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 22

The UT District Consumer Court has imposed a penalty of Rs 5,000, including the litigation fee, on the Chief Postmaster General and the Postmaster for failure to deliver a senior citizen’s money order for Rs 1,000 sent to his brother-in-law in Amritsar on the occasion of his sister’s Karva Chauth.

According to the complainant, Hakumat Rai, a resident of Sector 45, he had sent the money order for Rs 1,000 and had paid Rs 50 as commission/service charges to the opposite parties on October 12, 2015.

However, the elderly man was shocked to know that his relatives did not receive the money order. He approached the Postmaster at the Sector 47 post office, who assured him that it would be delivered in a day or two or else the amount would be refunded to him.

Thereafter, the senior citizen also approached the Department of Posts, Sector 17, through the Chief Postmaster General, but nothing positive came out of it.

In their replies, the opposite parties contended that due to a technical snag, the information regarding the money order received at the Data Centre got stuck and could not be transmitted to the payee office in Amritsar. Thus, the electronic money order could not be printed.

“Till the time the plaint was filed by the complainant on November 10, 2015, the money order had not been delivered. It was only after the plaint was filed that the opposite parties issued a duplicate money order and delivered it on November 30, 2015. Indeed, the motive of the complainant behind sending the money order was subjugated,” said the court in its order.