A job consultancy firm has been ordered by a district consumer forum to pay Rs 5,000 as damages to one of its customers for failing to provide a young and healthy domestic maid and instead sending old and ailing ones for the job.
A Delhi District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, headed by its president M P Mehndiratta, also ordered South Delhi-based Metro Job Consultants to refund to its customer Inderjeet Tanwar the entire Rs 8,500 commission charged for providing the requisite service.
"The maids provided from time to time were not fit to work as such and despite having received the agreed amount, the consultancy firm failed to provide the requisite services.
"Holding the firm to be guilty of deficiency in service, the complaint is allowed to the extent that it shall refund the entire amount (commission) of Rs 8,500 to the complainant and shall also pay Rs 5,000 as compensation including cost
Tanwar, in his complaint, had said he approached the job agency in May 2008 and paid Rs 4,000 to hire a maid who was around 20-year-old.
Tanwar also said that apart from a sum of Rs 4,000, the agency had charged another amount of Rs 4,500.
He alleged there was undue delay in service and the maids provided were of ill health and not robust enough to work assiduously.
"Despite the fact that it was agreed upon to provide a maid of about 20 years of age, one Asha Lata (40-year-old) was sent who was not ready to perform her job and started harassing the family," Tanwar had said in his complaint.
He alleged the maids provided by the firm from time to time harassed his family and one day, one of them disappeared after locking him and his three-year-old daughter in the house, about which he had also lodged a complaint with police.
The consumer forum held the job agency guilty of providing deficient services, dismissing its contentions.
