Southern States - Karnataka-Bangalore   

Firms pulled up for worker's negligence

By Govind D. Belgaumkar

BANGALORE Sept. 23. Can an apartment builder and his maintenance contractor be held responsible if a worker they hired to clean a building causes damage to equipment owned by a resident? Yes, according to the Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum of Bangalore Urban District.

In a complaint to the forum, Ravishankar J.B., an engineering consultant who lives in a flat owned by his relative in Brigade Komarla Vista on Uttarahalli Main Road, said that a worker hired by the builder/maintenance contractor to clean windows caused water to fall on his laptop.

Mr. Ravishankar told the forum that his laptop was damaged in the incident, which occurred on July 10, last year.

An employee of Tandem Property Management Service Pvt. Ltd., who was cleaning windows, was reportedly found responsible.

The company had been hired by Brigade Enterprises Pvt. Ltd., which constructed the apartments.

The President of the forum, M.N. Shankar Bhat, and a member of the forum, D. Nagarathnamma, did not accept the contention of the two companies that Mr. Ravishankar was not the owner of the apartment. They said that the respondents had accepted Rs. 7,200 for the maintenance of the building for a year from the occupant of the flat (Mr. Ravishankar), and he had the right to file the complaint.

The forum observed that the laptop was damaged because water was poured on a window negligently, and it fell inside the apartment.

It asked the companies to pay a compensation of Rs. 43,500 and costs of Rs. 2,000. The award includes a sum of Rs. 5,000 to compensate for the mental agony undergone by the complainant.

Mr. Ravishankar, who spent Rs. 38,500 on repairing the laptop, had sought Rs. 1 lakh as compensation and Rs. 10,000 for the mental agony he underwent.

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