Charge Re 1 extra, pay Rs 5500

New Delhi (PTI): A retailer who sold a bottle of Coke for Rs 8 instead of its sale price of Rs 7 has been ordered by a city consumer court to pay the customer Rs 5,500, besides the excess Re 1.

“The opposite party (Panditji Stall), instead of refunding the excess charge of Re 1, misbehaved with the complainant (Kapil Mitra) which is a clear case of deficiency in service,” said the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum (North).

On October 17, 2003, Mitra, a resident of Hamilton Road in the city, had purchased a 300 ml coke from the stall situated outside Kakardooma court complex here.

“Not only the opposite party overcharged, but also insisted that he will not make the refund and even claimed that at both of his outlets, he charged Rs 8 for 300 ml of Coke and that they are continuing the practice of charging over and above the maximum retail price,” the consumer court noted.

The forum ordered Anil Dubey, the proprietor of Panditji Stall, to pay Mitra compensation of Rs 5,000 “on account of overcharging, deficiency in service and for mental agony and harassment caused to the complainant”. He was also asked to pay Mitra a litigation cost of Rs 500.

HC summons health secretary

New Delhi (PTI): Delhi High Court has asked the Union health secretary to appear before it on Wednesday in connection with the death of at least 142 children in Safdarjung Hospital in one month.

The order came from a division bench of Chief Justice B.C. Patel and Justice B.D. Ahmed that earlier took suo motu cognisance of a newspaper report and issued notices to the Centre and the hospital.

The court also asked the Centre’s counsel, Siddharth Mridul, to inform the hospital authorities so that they are present during the hearing. The court was surprised to know from amicus curiae Sanjiv Khanna that the hospital returned Rs 5.8 crore to the government “unutilised”.

Investigations into the deaths in the paediatric ward have revealed nearly 80 per cent of the children died in the first 48 hours of admission, indicating that they were already in a critical state, sources said. A total of 1,175 children were admitted in June 2004, out of whom 142 died — 114 in the first 48 hours itself. In June 2003, the toll was 116, they said.

UP job for 3000 Urdu teachers

Lucknow (PTI): The Uttar Pradesh government has decided to recruit 3,000 Urdu teachers for its primary schools.

The state will appoint at least one lakh primary teachers out of which 46,000 have already got their jobs. A cabinet meeting on Tuesday also decided to increase the tenure of the state minorities commission from one year to three years, chief secretary V.K. Mittal said.

Student killed

Lucknow (PTI): A student leader was shot dead in a Lucknow university hostel on Tuesday. Upendra Singh Manu was shot dead at Habibullah hostel allegedly by another student leader, Brijesh Mishra, police sources said. The incident is believed to be a fallout of a firing incident in 2002 in which Manu was named an accused, they said.

Warrant case

New Delhi (PTI): The CBI has informed the Supreme Court that a sting operation carried out by a journalist to expose corruption in judiciary is nothing new and that it was a sequel to the one done by the Shakal newspaper in 1994. That case is pending consideration of Gujarat High Court, solicitor-general G.E. Vahanvatti said. The apex court was hearing a public interest litigation filed by journalist Vijay Shekhar, who got warrants issued in 2003 from an Ahmedabad court against many VIPs, including the President and the then Chief Justice of India, after paying Rs 40,000 to lawyers.

Meghnad weds

London (PTI): Indian economist Lord Meghnad Desai has married Kishwar Ahluwalia, who has worked as an editor for his book, Nehru’s Hero: Dilip Kumar in the life of India. Desai, the 64-year-old professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and 47-year-old Ahluwalia — both divorcees — had a simple wedding followed by a luncheon attended by friends.

Malnutrition toll

Jalgaon (PTI): At least 22 children have died due to malnutrition in the district between April and June, district health officer Subash Rawal said on Tuesday. The deaths were reported from tribal-dominated areas.

Local bodies in Pondicherry will soon start issuing marriage certificates in French. The Union territory, a former French colony where marriages are also registered in French, might appoint retired French officers on contract for the work.