LAHORE: The Lahore High Court has ruled that a buyer of plots in a housing scheme does not fall within the definition of “consumer” and cannot invoke jurisdiction of a consumer court against the non-provision of facilities by the developers.

Petitioner Yasir Chaudhry stated he bought five plots through balloting or other modes in a housing scheme of the Faisalabad Development Authority (FDA) in 2005.

He said despite receipt of billions of rupees from the allottees, the FDA neither carried out development work nor provided necessary facilities, such as electricity and water supply, at the site.

The petitioner’s counsel told the court that his client filed a claim against the authority under section 25 of Punjab Consumer Protection Act, 2005, before the district consumer court of Faisalabad.

However, he said, the consumer court dismissed the claim on account of lack of jurisdiction.

The counsel argued that the claim was clearly maintainable before the consumer court but the same had been dismissed without adverting to the relevant provisions of the relevant law.

He said the consumer court was duly vested with the jurisdiction and impugned order was not tenable under the law.

The FDA’s counsel, however, argued that the petitioner was not a consumer and his claim could not proceed under the Act.

In his judgement recently issued, Justice Mirza Viqas Rauf observed that the appellant had never hired any services for consideration rather he had purchased plots from the respondents in lieu of consideration.

The term and conditions of the purchase matured into an agreement between the petitioner and respondents. “Thus in case of violation of the contract the petitioner may ask for specific performance of contract or damages if there is a breach of contract on part of respondents through a suit before the civil court,” the judge added.

The judge observed that in order to invoke the jurisdiction of a consumer court, the claimant must first qualify to be a “consumer”. In the instant case, the petitioner bought certain plots from the respondents, which cannot be termed as “product”.

Published in Dawn, April 24th, 2021