New Delhi: Cellular major Hutch was today (Jul 21, 2004) ordered by a Delhi consumer court to pay Rs 32,000 to a subscriber besides refunding Rs 45, which the company wrongly charged for SMS services without delivering his messages.

"SMS means not only sending the message of the subscriber but the service charges can be taken only after the service is rendered by delivering the message... To discontinue such unfair trade for all times to come, this forum orders that Hutch will not, henceforth, debit the subscriber with SMS charges until the message is delivered," the court said.

"The complainant (Dharam Pal Gupta) was put to mental agony, harassment and torture by Hutch and the company was deficient in service and, therefore, it will pay Rs 30,000 as compensation to the complainant for deficiency in service and insult," District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum (North) president K K Chopra, Members Neeru Mittal and S C Jain said.

Gupta, with mobile connection number 9811525341, found that despite repeated failure of SMS delivery, Rs 45 was deducted from his credit balance and called Hutch's Customer Care cell number 9811098110 on July 24, 2003 to inform about the same. But Hutch executive Vicky rudely retorted that he did not have time for such grievances involving such "trifle" amount and said he consumes soft drink for that amount daily, Gupta alleged.

"Instead of redressing the complaint, the executive insulted the complainant which was wholly unwarranted and speaks volumes about Hutch executives conduct in dealing with their subscribers," the forum said.