Wedding gift ruined: Furniture shop to pay damages

Petitioner says furniture had damaged within a month because the wood used in its manufacture was substandard.

LAHORE: A consumer court has awarded damages of Rs95,000 to a petitioner who sued Hafiz Tariq Furniture House for selling him substandard furniture. 

The petitioner had submitted that he bought a double bed, side tables, a showcase, dressing table and three centre tables for his daughter at her wedding.

The furniture cost Rs80,000 and came with a six-month warrantee, he said.  But, the petitioner said, the furniture had been damaged within a month because the wood used in its manufacture was substandard. He said he had been humiliated in front of his in-laws. He asked the court to direct the furniture store to repay his Rs80,000, pay Rs1,000,000 in damages for ‘mental torture’, and Rs10,000 as lawyer’s fees.

The court conducted ex-parte proceedings in the case as no one appeared on behalf of the respondent. On Saturday, the court directed the respondent to return the petitioner’s Rs80,000 and pay him Rs15,000 as compensation.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 27^th, 2013.