Elevator Company Not Returning Motherboard? Your Options

One of my clients recently had a case which I am explaining below and if you are stuck in such similar situation, here is what to do.

Note: Due to attorney-client privilege, I cannot disclose complete case details or identify the actual parties involved. However, I am sharing the essential facts and legal approach so that if you find yourself in a similar situation, you can understand the available solutions and legal remedies.

TL;DR: If an elevator company pulls a part out of your lift and refuses to hand it back until you renew the AMC, that is a deficiency in service, and a consumer complaint before the District Commission is usually the fastest route to get the part back. You can also send a legal notice demanding the part and the GST invoice, and there is a criminal angle if the company simply keeps your property, but the consumer or civil track normally recovers equipment quicker.

The lift serves three floors. Since the middle of September it has served none of them.

The order went to Skyline Elevators India Pvt. Ltd., a Pune firm, in early 2024. Rohit Kulkarni paid close to sixteen lakh rupees, GST included. Installation was promised inside twelve weeks. It took nearly nine months, with calls chasing the company every fortnight.

Then the breakdowns began. First month, then third, then sixth. Each visit brought a new theory and a new bill.

September was different. A technician came for routine servicing. The next morning the lift was dead. Two days later a second technician opened the control panel, said the motherboard needed repair, unplugged it, and walked out of the house with it in his bag.

The company's position shifted within the week. The AMC had lapsed, they said. Renew it, and the part comes back. Mr Kulkarni refused and asked for the motherboard as it was. Weeks passed. No part. No GST invoice for the original payment either, despite repeated requests.

What is left is a trail of a sort. Payment records, a purchase order, call logs of those fortnightly follow-ups, and a run of messages asking for the motherboard and for the invoice. The lift has not moved since the middle of September. The company's position has not moved either.

Everything above comes from Mr Kulkarni. Skyline's side is not in front of me. Whether the AMC contract — the one that had lapsed, according to them — gives the company a right to hold a part until fresh dues are paid is the question this whole thing turns on, and I cannot answer it from what I have been told.

Is taking the motherboard back a deficiency in service?

On the facts as described, yes. The Consumer Protection Act, 2019 defines a deficiency in service as a fault, imperfection, shortcoming or inadequacy in the quality, nature and manner of performance of a service. Pulling a working component out of a customer's machine during a service visit and keeping it until a new contract is signed fits that definition about as neatly as anything does.

The two defences the company is likely to run are these. First, that the AMC had lapsed, so there was no service relationship at the time of the visit. That cuts against them rather than for them — if there was no contract, the technician had no business opening the panel. Second, that the contract allows retention of parts pending dues. That one needs the contract, in writing, with the relevant clause. Demanding a fresh AMC as the price of returning property that belongs to the customer also gives you an arguable case of an unfair trade practice.

One threshold point. A lift bought for a home, used by the family, keeps Mr Kulkarni inside the definition of a consumer. A lift in a shop, a clinic or a rented commercial floor does not, and the commercial-purpose exclusion can shut the consumer route before the merits are reached. Worth knowing before you file.

Key facts

• Lift ordered in early 2024 from a Pune-based firm, with roughly ₹16 lakh paid, GST included.
• Installation promised in twelve weeks; it took about nine months.
• Breakdowns in the first month, the third and the sixth after installation.
• A routine service visit in September was followed the next morning by a total failure.
• A second technician opened the control panel, said the motherboard needed repair, and carried it away.
• The company's stated condition for return: renew the annual maintenance contract.
• The motherboard has not come back. No GST invoice for the original payment has been issued either.
• The lift serves three floors and has served none of them since then.

What to do first, and in what order

Start with a written demand. Not a phone call — those have been made for months. A legal notice asking for three things: return of the motherboard, the GST invoice for the original supply, and a written statement of the AMC dues. Give a firm deadline, usually fifteen days, and say plainly that a consumer complaint follows if the deadline passes.

The notice does two jobs. It creates a dated record of the refusal if the company stays silent, and it sometimes produces the part, because a company that has a lawyer reading it will ask itself whether a ₹16 lakh dispute over a motherboard is worth the cost of defending.

Alongside this, build the evidence pack:

• The purchase order and the payment proof — bank statement, UPI record, whatever shows the money leaving.
• Any installation report, warranty card or service slips.
• The AMC papers, if you have them. If you do not, write to the company asking for a copy of the contract they are relying on.
• Messages and emails asking for the motherboard, and any reply refusing.
• The date the technician visited and, if anyone was present, who saw the part leave.
• Photographs of the panel as it stands.

Filing the consumer complaint

A complaint goes to the District Commission. On pecuniary limits, a claim of this size sits comfortably within the District Commission's ceiling of ₹50 lakh, which is where the 2021 jurisdiction rules put it. The limitation is two years from the date the cause of action arose, so a part taken in September is nowhere near the edge of that window, but the clock is running.

The filing fee is modest and varies by state. You do not need a lawyer to appear before the Commission — a party can argue their own case, and many do. You can file online through the e-Daakhil portal, and a first complaint to the National Consumer Helpline on 1915 sometimes moves a supplier faster than a lawyer's letter, though on a dispute this size it usually does not end it.

Ask for the return of the motherboard, compensation for the months without a working lift, and costs. The Commission can also pass an interim order where the material supports one. Realistically, a contested matter at the District level runs into a year or more before a final order, whatever the paperwork promises. If the part is what you want back quickly, the notice and the threat of the complaint often do more work than the complaint itself.

The GST invoice point

A registered supplier is required to issue a tax invoice for a taxable supply, and a buyer who has paid is entitled to receive it. Where the tax was collected on the bill and no invoice followed, that is a matter you can put in writing to the supplier, and if it goes nowhere, to the jurisdictional GST officer. The department has its own machinery for a supplier who collects tax and does not account for it.

Keep the invoice issue separate from the motherboard issue in your notice. They are two demands against the same company, and mixing them makes it easier for the reply to answer neither.

Can the police be asked to step in?

There is a criminal angle, and it is narrower than most people hope. Where property is entrusted to someone — here, the part handed over to a technician who came to service the lift — and that person dishonestly keeps it or refuses to return it, the facts can be brought within criminal breach of trust under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanh ita, 2023. The provision that carries criminal breach of trust is Section 316 of the BNS, which replaced Section 406 of the Indian Penal Code. It covers property entrusted to a person who then dishonestly misappropriates it, or keeps it in violation of a legal contract or a legal direction about how it must be returned. Two things have to line up. Entrustment is the easy half here. The board went into a bag with permission, for a stated purpose. The dishonest intention is where these complaints usually fail. A company that says it is holding the part because the AMC lapsed and the contract lets it retain material until dues are cleared is raising a civil defence. Police stations read that as a money dispute and point you to the consumer forum. They are not always wrong to. What shifts it is a refusal with no basis at all in the contract, or a demand for something the company has no right to demand as the price of return. We do not have that AMC agreement here, so I cannot tell Mr Kulkarni which side of the line he is on. If a written notice asks the company to identify the clause it is relying on, and no clause appears, the picture sharpens considerably. A police complaint is still worth making, though, and not only for the criminal side. Stations often make a phone call. A call from a station house officer asking why a customer's part is sitting in a workshop frequently produces the part within a week, without any of the law being tested. If the station declines to register, the next step is a complaint before the jurisdictional Magistrate with a request that the police be directed to investigate. That application is not a substitute for the consumer complaint. It runs parallel to it. ### Which route actually gets the part back

• Legal notice, 15 days. Cheapest and fastest. Sometimes enough on its own.
• Police complaint. Useful pressure. Rarely results in an FIR on a first attempt where a contract is in play.
• Consumer complaint. The proper forum for the deficiency in service. Slow, but it can order return, compensation and costs.
• Civil suit for the return of the specific movable property. Available, and the heaviest hammer, but the cost and time rarely justify it over a board.

Pick the notice first, always. File the consumer complaint if the deadline passes. Use the police complaint as leverage and mean it, because a threat you never act on is worth nothing the second time.

What the company cannot do while this runs

They can keep sending AMC renewal reminders. They cannot cut off a service you have already paid for on the strength of a contract that has expired, and they cannot treat a lapsed AMC as a lien over your equipment unless the contract says so in words. If anyone from the company tells you on a call that nothing moves until you sign, ask for that in writing. A written version of that sentence is uncomfortable for them.

What is not recoverable, realistically

On these facts there may be little to argue about the delayed installation. A nine-month delay against a twelve-week promise happened in 2024, and a claim built on it is likely to run into the two-year limitation. The GST invoice point is strong but small. The months without a working lift can be claimed as compensation, and a Commission can award it, but the figure is usually modest and it does not bring the lift back. The core of the case remains the board.

Frequently Asked Questions

What to send us

If you are in this position, send three things and nothing else to start: the purchase order or invoice for the lift, its date, and a two-line note setting out when the part was taken and what the company told you. Photographs of the open panel help. If you have the AMC contract, attach it. If you do not, say so, and we will draft the request for it along with the notice.

You can write through /contact-us or fix a time at /book. The chamber is at Lawyers' Chamber, Chamber No. 86, Supreme Court of India, New Delhi - 110001. Phone +91 97295 06771, email me@sudhirrao.com.

Criminal defence, cyber crime and economic offences are handled by Advocate Sudhir Rao, enrolled with the Bar Council of Delhi in 2021. Family and matrimonial matters are handled by Adv. Jyoti Rao, an associate of the chamber, Bar Council of Delhi D/891/2023.

Be straight with us about the AMC. If that contract contains a retention clause that covers this situation, there may be nothing to argue on the return of the board, and you are better off knowing that in the first meeting than in the third.

This article is general information about Indian law and is not legal advice on your own situation. Facts differ, and outcomes differ with them.

Advocate Sudhir Rao, Supreme Court of India