Consumer activists anguish over delayed orders
Though the consumer fora have to decide cases within 60 days, this was not the case with most of them
Consumer activists here have expressed anguish over the inordinate delay in the delivery of justice to complainants by consumer bodies constituted under the Consumer Protection Act (CPA).
After elaborate discussion on the issue at a meeting recently, they decided to form a three-member committee to decide on the course of action to impress upon the concerned for the need to speed up decision making by these fora by cutting down on procedures, to allow for speedy redressal.
During the debate, S S Viesweswariah, former dean and principal of University Law College of Karnatak University, Dharwad, came out with three remedies to ensure speedy disposal of decisions by the consumer grievances redressal bodies.
He suggested, filing a public interest litigation before the Supreme Court by interest groups seeking a direction to quasi-judicial bodies, like consumer fora, not to violate the respective laws and rules, or meeting the High Court Chief Justice to appeal for an oral direction to the consumer redressal bodies, or approaching the legal cell.
Initiating the debate at the meeting organised by the Karnataka State Federation of Consumers’ Organisations (KSFCO) to discuss the issue, General Secretary S P Thirumala Rao observed, though the consumer fora have to decide cases within 60 days, this was not the case with most of them. As a result of the delays, aggrieved consumers were losing interest in approaching these bodies for redressal. Thus, it defeated the intentions of the government in passing the CPA for safeguarding the interests of consumers at large.
Against the background of inbuilt delay in delivery of justice in regular courts with highly cumbersome judicial processes, tribunals were established by bringing forth special laws like CPA and Patent Law to render justice cheap and fast, said Visweswariah.
These quasi-judicial bodies were provided with procedural laxity and flexibility. Even with this, the situation had come to that as to wonder why the delay in delivery of orders. One reason was the appointment of retired judges to head these bodies.
Used to procedural rigidities, they cannot unshackle themselves all of a sudden, the professor said, adding orientation for them on procedural flexibility to deliver justice as soon as possible could be a remedy.
Another consumer activist from Bangalore noted the district consumer councils had not been convened in most of the districts, even after lapse of one year, while their term was three years. Here too, the objective of setting up councils with consumer representatives was defeated denying them a platform to represent issues related to CPA.
C M Muniramappa, former Head of Department of Commerce, Mysore University, said the objectives of the Right to Information Act (RTI) too had come to suffer similarly with delays in disposing of applications or evading answers to applicants.