Image by Deepak Meena from Pixabay
Weddings are a big deal in India and it’s not much of an exaggeration to say that Indian parents take the shaadi business a little too seriously. And if your faith wavers from this fact, a recent news from Chandigarh will reiterate the fact that hell hath no fury like a parent whose request to find a match for their child has been failed. Surinder Pal Singh Chahal of Mohali was so disappointed with Wedding Wish Pvt Ltd, a matrimonial agency, for not being able to find the right bridegroom for his daughter, that he filed a complaint against them at the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum. The result: the wedding company had to not only refund the family their Rs 50,000 deposit (with 9 percent interest) but also pay Rs 12,000 as compensation and litigation expenses.
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Chahal and his wife Narimder Kaur were looking for a boy for their daughter, Noreen, since 2017, when Wedding Wish approached them after seeing their newspaper ad seeking a match for their daughter. The same year, Noreen signed an agreement with them and made a payment of Rs 50,000 to become a “royal member”. Some of the family’s preferences included someone from a medical background (since Noreen was also a government doctor) and from the Jatt community who lives in or around Chandigarh. The agency took nine months to upload 18 profiles, none of which matched the requirements.
As part of his complaint, Chahal stated that the profiles shared by Wedding Wish were “totally different” from what he wanted, and that “not even a single profile met with their requirements”. Additionally, Chahal also had a grouse with the fact that some of the prospective grooms were “manglik ” (a person born under the influence of Mars in Vedic astrology who some believe are unlucky for their spouse). Even the most basic requirement of having the prospective groom within a radius of 60 km was “intentionally failed”. This led to Chahal terminating the agreement and sending them a legal notice on October 22, 2018. After the firm didn’t respond, the family took the case to the consumer forum.On their part, the company responded that their job is only to “upload matching profiles in the accounts of clients as per the preferences given in the registration form, while every effort is being made by them to provide suitable matches for the clients and for it they also provided additional profiles to the clients, that too without any extra charges.”
However, the consumer forum stated that the “absurd profiles were nothing but a waste for the complainant.” All this has not only wasted the precious time of the complainant but also caused them gross mental agony and physical harassment, it said. “The Opposite Party has miserably failed in their professional services by not providing a suitable match for the girl which leads to inordinate delay in fixation of her marriage.” This is, perhaps, a timely reminder that not all matches are made in heaven. Some end up in courts.Follow Pallavi Pundir on Twitter.