Noida: After pursuing a complaint for nine years, a Delhi resident has finally secured relief from the district consumer commission in Noida. The commission asked Dell Technologies and the online platform that sold the laptop to refund the cost of the device with interest and also pay litigation costs after it developed defects within the claimed warranty period.Rachit Gupta had purchased a Dell Inspiron laptop online for Rs 57,079 through the Android app of Paytm Mobile Solutions on March 14, 2016. Within a few months, the laptop stopped getting charged and the display also conked off, prompting Gupta to visit the Dell service centre. He got to know from the service centre that the laptop was a refurbished one.Gupta filed an application with the district consumer commission on April 26, 2017. He alleged the manufacturer, the online e-commerce platform and other parties were involved in the sale of refurbished laptops as first-hand material. He filed a case of cheating and forgery. The district commission rejected his application on June 2, 2022. Gupta then challenged the order at the state consumer commission in Lucknow.Ruling in his favour, the state commission set aside the judgment and remanded the case to the district commission, asking it to restore the complaint to its original number and decide the complaint afresh.While revisiting the case, the president of the district commission, Anil Kumar Pundir, and member Anju Sharma noted that the seller had contested the complaint mainly on the ground that it is merely an online marketplace and provides a platform for third-party sellers. The manufacturer, on the other hand, contended that the laptop in question was originally sold in Thailand, was brought to India through parallel grey market import and was tampered with by a third party, replacing original components with non-genuine parts. Therefore, Dell India is not liable to provide warranty support.The commission noted that these defence arguments do not take away the essential nature of the dispute that Gupta had paid for a branded laptop and was supplied a product which, according to the material on record, was defective and contained duplicate parts. It ordered the parties to jointly and severally refund the sum of Rs 57,079 with 6% interest calculated from the date of filing of the complaint, within 30 days of the judgment. It also ordered the opposite parties to pay Rs 2,000 as compensation for mental agony and Rs 1,000 towards litigation cost.
