Former co-operative society chief told to pay Rs 10,000 or face jail

PUNE: An additional district consumer court has sentenced Madhukar Pachpande, a former chairman of the Audhyogik Vikas Nagari cooperative credit society near Chinchwad railway station to pay a Rs 10,000 fine or face five-days simple imprisonment for not complying with its order of November 4, 2016. The society is under a liquidation process.
The consumer court had then directed the society chairman to pay Rs 15.89 lakh along with 9% p.a. interest on an amount of Rs 11 lakh and Rs 23,000 compensation and cost to original complainants, Ashok Ramchandra Kurbet and Geeta Ashok Kurbet. However, he failed to comply, prompting the complainants to initiate an execution proceeding against him in May last year. Lawyer A S Deshmukh filed the execution application.

A three-member bench of president M K Walchale and members S K Pacharne and S J Dunakhe on February 27 found Pachpande guilty of the offence punishable under Section 27 of the Consumer Protection Act which deals with penalties for non-compliance of consumer court orders. On the point of sentence, Pachpande, who appeared in person, prayed for liniency on the grounds that since a liquidator has been appointed, he had no authority to give the amount to the applicants.

The bench held that the fact still remained that he failed to comply with the order. “Instead of sentencing him to imprisonment, imposing the fine would meet the ends of justice,” the bench ruled.

Pachpande had taken a defence that he had preferred an appeal against the November 4, 2016 order and that he was not liable to implement the order as the society was placed under a liquidator.

The court said he did not give evidence about the appeal. The liquidation process was initiated in May 2017 and confirmed in July 2017 and he had time between November 4, 2016 and May 12, 2017. “Time was available to the accused to comply with the order, but he has not and thus disobeyed the order. He can not take the stand that the liquidator having been now appointed he is not liable to comply with the order,” the bench ruled.