The Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, Ernakulam, has directed the management of the LuLu International Shopping Mall at Edappally to deposit with it from Tuesday the amount collected as parking fee.
The forum, however, turned down an interlocutory application by the petitioner seeking to restrain the mall management from collecting parking fee.
The management has to deposit the parking fee complete with a comprehensive daily split up of accounts, including amount, if any, collected as municipal taxes and service tax payable to the Central government with the Forum on every alternate day. The amount would be deposited in the bank for the time being and the “mode of its refund of appropriation otherwise, shall be determined during the final disposal of the case.” Rama George, a Kaloor-based social worker, filed a petition with the Forum after she was charged Rs.60 as parking fee at the mall on February 5. M.A. Yusuff Ali, CEO/managing director of LuLu Mall and the mall manager have been arraigned as respondents.
The Forum found that prima facie the parking fee collected by the mall management from potential consumers was incompatible with the essence of the Consumer Protection Act.
“In the present scenario, a person who wants to watch a movie in the mall, which takes about three hours, will have to spend Rs.60 plus towards parking fee, in addition to the charges of the movie ticket, which sounds outrageous to us.” It is a matter of civility that shopping malls do not collect parking fee at least for a few hours, since the traders are already earning from the consumers, observed the Forum comprising president Cherian K. Kuriakose and members Sheena Jose and Beena Kumari.
According to the petitioner, the respondents have no right to collect parking fee from the public after advertising a parking space for 3,500 cars at the mall to attract consumers.
