DLF- a blood-sucking vampire on my back
Facts:
1. I had booked Flat No. M1E103/PE1019#154 in Express Greens, Sector-M1 Sector-1, Manesar, Gurgaon on 27.08.2008 through DLF Home Developers for a total consideration of Rs.53,15,999/-.
2. DLF made quick demands and by 16.01.2009 I had already paid Rs.14,37,494.55/-.
3. However, soon after booking I got to know through an uncle (one of his friends had inside information of the DLF) that the project was not approved by the Haryana Govt. and that DLF was soon going to scrap the project. Soon enough my fears were confirmed by a newspaper report "DLF stalls 2 of its biggest projects" (New Town Heights and Express Greens) dated 12.02.2009(Business Standard). There were subsequent news in other media too confirming the mess that DLF was in.
4. I stopped paying thereafter and filed a Complaint in the Distt. Forum on 23.02.2009. I did not even sign the buyer-seller agreement/contract.
5. Express Greens was to be completed and handed over within 3 years....but it is 7 years now and possessions were yet to be handed over....delay of at least 4 years!
6. During the pendency of the Complaint, on pressure from the Distt. consumer's Forum, DLF refunded me an amount of Rs.8,24,951/- vide interim orders dated 12.05.2010.That Ld. Distt. forum VI vide order dated 16.08.2012 allowed my complaint and directed DLF to pay balance amount of Rs.6,12,542.74/- too along with interest @ 6% p.a. on the entire deposited amount of Rs.14,37,494.55/- from 16.06.2010 and further amount of Rs.1 lacs was awarded as damages including litigations expenses to me. However, DLF challenged this in State Commission.....but lost the case and now have gone to the National Commission.
7. I have been fighting for 7 years with my meagre resources to get back my money. Litigation is expensive and I am financially, mentally and physically exhausted.....which is what DLF wants!
The Games that DLF plays (and Consumer Courts unintentionally help DLF in it's Game Plan) :
Please note the wily spirit with which DLF relentlessly pursues prolonged litigation against aggrieved parties right up to the highest courts for years and decades....even after repeatedly losing in the lower courts:
If DLF wins it's a winner in any case
BUT.... even if it loses the case after a decade or two, DLF is still a big winner...because it will sit pretty on the aggrieved party's money for decades and use it commercially in business to multiply its profits. And in the end even if it loses, the court may ask it to pay just 6% (against the market interest rate of 9-10%) plus a little penalty....as happened in my case (which is yet to be paid by them). Where else will DLF get such cheap "business loan" disguised in litigation? Here endless litigation is used as a tool for making profits on someone else's money. These are truly dirty profits. (Take notice: DLF insists on a very unfair agreement.....if you default, you pay DLF 18% interest....but if DLF defaults, they are liable to pay you only 6% interest.....totally a win-win situation for DLF!. ....this also explains why they love delaying projects).
On the flip side: Even if the petitioner won in the Distt. forum(as I did in 2012)...and DLF lost in both... the Distt Forum and the State Forum, yet the petitioner is still a big loser as DLF has been sitting on his money for the past 7 years (so far)....and he is deprived of even earning the normal bank interest rate of 9-10% on his own money.
So litigation spread over decades is "shrewd business strategy" for DLF irrespective of the outcome of the case.... Even if DLF knows they don't have merit in a case and will finally lose it....it makes "business sense" to keep litigating and sit on the hapless home buyer's money! In "delay" lies the money for DLF. It has become a side/sidey/shady business for DLF apart from it's main business as a "Builder". I request the Hon'ble Courts to see through this avaricious game plan/ hidden agenda of DLF, if it is to protect the interests of vulnerable consumers like me.
Expensive litigation and the whole journey from District Consumer Forum to State Forum to National Forum will tire out and break the backbone, morale and resolve of most aggrieved individuals who may be no match for the power and might of an influential and unscrupulous company like the DLF which has a battery of legal advisors/lawyers to fight to the highest courts till eternity. After this protracted litigation the petitioner is likely to emerge a poorer and defeated man in his quest for justice....irrespective of the final outcome of this case.
As a by product, DLF would have vindictively taught a hard lesson to the petty buyer who has gone to court to seek justice and extricate his hard earned money. How dare he challenge their might!
Being in a dominant position and as part of it's strategy of "protracted litigation and delayed deliveries", DLF has harassed many other litigants and home buyers in DLF projects like Belaire, Park Place, Magnolia, New Town Heights, Express Greens who know it all too well. In 2010, a group of buyers from the DLF Belaire and Magnolias projects in Gurgaon filed a complaint with "Competition Commission of India" for unfair trade practices, stemming from its position of dominance. The CCI subsequently fined DLF Rs 630 crore. CCI penalized them with another Rs. 2.4 crore in the case of Magnolia demand letter for increase in Super Area. Extortion, harassment and unreasonable/untimely demand letters are routine methodology for DLF.
I am just a small fry!
Today I am a 61 year old senior citizen. I had cancer in 2005; was treated with operation, chemotherapy and radiotherapy at IRCH, AIIMS; showed the papers to DLF and requested them to refund my money. DLF heartlessly dismissed those grounds too. A cancer patient knows that cancer can re-visit anytime. And yes I am in a hurry to get my hard-earned money back....well within my lifetime! Justice delayed is justice denied....and the courts, unfortunately, have unwittingly helped DLF.
Satish Sharma,
21st July 2015
Mob. +91 ********44