Chandigarh: Panel tells Lake Club to restore life membership

Ramkrishan Upadhyay

Chandigarh, January 18

In one of the significant judgments, the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, UT of Chandigarh, has ordered the Lake Club here to restore the lifetime membership of a member with immediate effect which was terminated for not depositing maintenance and other charges.

The commission says, “The life membership, as its title denotes, is for life and cannot be cancelled. So the act of the club in cancelling the life membership of the complainant is wrong and illegal.”

A member of the club, Capt MP Singh, had approached the commission through counsel Amarbir Dhaliwal alleging that the club had cancelled his lifetime membership illegally. He said he took the lifetime membership of the club before 2000 by paying a hefty fee of Rs10,000. He was not supposed to pay any other maintenance or subscription charges to the club in lieu of the membership as per the rules, he said.

Capt MP Singh said the club changed its nomenclature to Lake Sports Complex in 2006 without informing him.

He said no demand was ever raised by the club till 2016 with regard to any maintenance charges or any other charges, but he was issued demand notices in 2016 by the club asking him to pay charges.

He requested the club to recall the demand notices as he was not liable to pay the said amount, but they did not. The club illegally terminated his membership vide a letter dated June1, 2017, he said.

Meanwhile, the club filed a reply and denied that the complainant was not supposed to pay any maintenance and subscription charges to the club in lieu of membership as per the rules. The club said Rs10,000 had been paid by the complainant towards one-time subscription fee only for becoming a member of the Lake Sports Complex and even a lifetime member of the club had to pay maintenance charges of the Lake Sports Complex. The club claimed that before terminating the membership, he had been informed by the club. When the complainant failed to clear his dues of Rs 6,638 as on May, 2017, despite ample opportunities, his membership was terminated vide a notice dated June 1, 2017.

The commission, comprising Rajan Dewan, president, and BM Sharma, member, also said in case some additional infrastructure facilities had been created and provided by the club for which other life members were also being charged, then the amount as per the benchmark applicable to other life members might be charged from the complainant. Further, the complainant will continue to pay the monthly charges, as per the rules and norms of the club applicable to their other life members for availing of special/additional facilities.