The complainant, Ashutosh Goyal, a resident of Sector 20, said in his complaint that he had booked a two-bedroom flat at Baddi in Himachal Pradesh with Shivkon Infrastructures by paying the initial deposit of Rs 1 lakh in October 2005. He further claimed to have deposited a sum of Rs 5.50 lakh after two months towards the balance payment of 50 percent of the cost of the flat.

When it transpired that no housing project had been allotted or approved, the complainant approached the builder for a refund but to no avail. After great persuasion, the builders agreed to hand him over Rs 6.50 lakh along with the interest towards refund of the earnest money.

A cheque Rs 50, 000 drawn in favour of State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, Panchkula branch, was issued to Goyal but it was dishonoured on account of insufficient funds. He was again issued a cheque of Rs 6.5 lakh drawn in favour State Bank of India, Sector 36, Chandigarh but it was also dishonoured by the bank due to lack of funds.

Shivkon Infrastructures was served several notices but since there was no reply from their behalf, the case was proceeded against ex parte.