dear friends it is peculiar case. An resident welafare association filed complaint against the builder for 19 lacs. who is my client. one of the grounds of relif is that the under ground cabling for electricity lines has not been properly laid. in the written version the OP has celarly stated that since the majority of the residents wanted over head lines instead of UG cables to prove the same we have filed resolutions submitted by the complainant with the OP. we further submitted that in view of the indesiveness on the part of the association we have been providing electricity to all the residents and meeting their electricity bills and supporting bills have aslo been filed. while the OP was still pending we issued lawyer notice demanding the sum of 13.50 lacs from the associaiton being the refund amount towards electricity charges paid by the OP on behalf of the members of the association / residents. in the circumstances without even replying the said notice where in we have demanded a clear cut decsiion on their part, and without intimating our client or their officers, the association arranged OH lines and connections. further an amendment petition was filed seeking refund of the amount of deposit for OH line connections which for 63 houses amounts to 6.3 lacs. after our pointing that the district forum has lost pecuniary jurisdiction and amendment is a fresh cause of action, a memo was filed by the complainant submitting to restricitng his claim to 20 lacs and the petition was allowed. now we have addl written statement, wherein we have made a counter claim for Rs 26.80 lacs. kindly tell me whether the Addl written statement can be treated as a counter claim. we have not paid any court fee and there is arbitration clause also in the contracts executed between the individual members, which we are yet to invoke. kindly let me know whether the district forum will have pecuniary jurisdiction in the matter in view of the counter claim exceeding the pecuniary jurisdiction of the DF. revision petitions are also pending.
