Briefly, the claimant has brought this case under sec 25 of Punjab Consumer Protection Act 2005 for recovery of an amount of Rs 936966 as price of defective material, transport and labour expenses, mental agony, loss of reputation etc for the reason that they purchased blue and green packing wrappers from the owner of Sultani printing press at Faisalabad (defendant) but that the same wrappers were damaged due to chemical reaction as the defendant used defective materials in their preparation that, therefore, the dealers who purchased the claimant's manufactured material in these wrappers complained about the defective material and the same was returned to the claimant as such that, hence, the claimant had to bear a loss to their business.
The defendant vehemently opposed the claim by filing their written statement, inter alia, on the ground that the claim is not maintainable as the claimant has no cause of action against them.
2. Preliminary arguments heard. Record perused.
3. The learned counsel for the defendants has out rightly contended in his arguments that the claimants are not consumers under the definition as laid down in sec 2 (c)(i) of the Punjab Consumer Protection Act 2005 as they have obtained the wrappers from the defendants for commercial purpose. Contrary to it, the learned claimant's counsel has controverted such objection on the ground that the claimants are the consumers within the definition as enumerated in the above said section of the Act ibid as they have consumed the material supplied to them by the defendants in packing the material for resale to various sale points at different cities in the country.
4. After hearing both the sides on the point of consumer/seller manufacturer relationship in between the parties, I have given a thoughtful consideration to the proposition. It would be pertinent to reproduce the definition of "consumer" as laid down in section 2 (c) (i) of the Punjab Consumer Protection Act 2005 as under.
5. Consumer means a person or entity who buys or obtains on lease any product for a consideration and includes any user of such product but does not include a person who obtains any product for resale or for any commercial purpose.
6. From the above said scenario, emanating from the pleadings of the parties, the contentions raised by learned counsel of the parties and the law produced, it is up to my entire satisfaction that the claimants purchased the wrappers from the defendants not only for resale but also for commercial purpose. Therefore the claimants may not be deemed as consumers seen from whatever angle, on legal as well factual planes. The claim is dismissed accordingly.
7. However it is made clear that the claimants may seek remedy for redressal of their grievance from a civil court of competent jurisdiction, if so desired and warranted by law. File be consigned to the record room.