Consumer Court Orders BDA Chief to Refund Rs. 2 Lakhs

The Commissioner of the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) has to refund the amount of Rs 2 lakh collected as unfair car parking charges.

The Commissioner of the Bangalore Development Authority charged car parking charges for a BDA property worth Rs 42.9 lakh in Bangalore. Apoorva S kademane of Jalahalli was allotted a property in 2017 by the BDA, costing Rs 42,91,250. She had to pay an additional charge (Rs. 2 lakh) for car parking and (Rs. 5.04) for GST.

She went so many times to the officials of BDA, but they were not responding to her with proper solutions. After many efforts and no results, she went to consumer court! She argued that the charges were not mentioned in the allotment letter and filed an appeal with the Bengaluru Urban 3rd Additional District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission in November 2021.

After witnessing the affidavit evidence and documents, the commission noticed that the complainant did not have to pay any additional charges as per the allotment letter issued by BDA in August 2017. However, the charges were separately mentioned in the letter issued in November 2017, which was 'unfair'.

According to the city consumer court, there was unfair trade practice as the initial documents contained nothing about the additional care parking charges. So, the money collected by the BDA was illegal, and the chief must return Rs. 2 lakh to Apporva S Kadmane. Additionally, BDA will have to pay Rs. 10,000 to cover the litigation expenses.