Thakkar filed a complaint at the Vadodara consumer forum in 2005, after Sharekhan sold off the shares and refused to pay him the amount due.

Consumer court advocate, Mukesh Shah said the shares were sold off on September 3, 2005, without Thakkar’s consent. “Thakkar had acquired 212 ONGC shares at Rs 1,034 each and had asked the company to cancel trading when the price dropped to Rs 1,000 apiece. However, the company sold off all his shares when the price dropped to Rs 986.36. The company then also purchased shares worth Rs 8 lakh without informing Thakkar, causing him a loss of Rs 2.66 lakh,” Shah said.

The consumer court bench of Varsha Desai and S A Makhija ordered on December 24 that Sharekhan Sakar and their local franchise, Silicon Securities, should pay Thakkar Rs 2.66 lakh with nine per cent interest from September 3, 2005. They also ordered the Sharekhan to pay Rs 300 for mental agony and Rs 1,500 for the proceedings of the consumer court.

Sharekhan had in its defence argued that Thakkar had not actually suffered any losses and that his intentions were malafide and he only wanted to extract money from the trading company. It said that the consumer court also had no jurisdiction over this case.