Respected Sirs,
I, along with a few friends of mine, was selected by Phoenix Maritime Services Pvt Ltd for Merchant Navy Course, after the completion of which, they were supposed to provide me with a job, for which they charged Rs 2,25,000/- to each to us. They made us sign an Undertaking, which I have attached below for your reference. In that undertaking, they have mentioned that we would have to wait for 4-6 months for job. As per agreement, we waited beyond 6 months. Now, my friends went to their office and demanded repayment of money. After a brief argument, the director of the company issued them with post-dated cheques, which bounced repeatedly. I was unable to accompany them as my father had health issues and I had to take care of him. So, these people went to the office again and informed about cheque bounce, to which the director replied that he doesn't have any money and that if these people fil cases against him, he would declare bankruptancy and escape from obligation to repay the money. A few pointers here are:
1] He is providing placement services in voilation of Merchant Shipping Act, 1958, which states that only companies/agencies having valid RPSL(Recruitment and Placement Services Licence) can provide placement t seafarers, and also that it should be done at no charge. But here, they charged us money for placement, as mentioned above.
2] The persons who run this firm are lawyers themselves, and hence are daring us to file cases against them, in which case they would declare bankruptcy and wash off their hands.
My query is: What can we do in such circumstances? I am pretty sure that being lawyers themselves, they would have all their personal properties in the names of their relatives or someone, which would lead to zero liquidity of their assets when they declare bankruptcy. Please advice, as these people have wasted away 2 valuable years of our lives, along with destroying our careers and eating up almost Rs3 lakhs from each of us. Thanks in advance
P.S: PHOENIX MARITIME SERVICES AND PHOENIX SEA SERVICES ARE ONE AND THE SAME
THEIR WEBSITES: https://www.phoenixsea.com https://www.phoenixmaritime.in/