The Government has taken a number of measures to reduce pendency of cases in the consumer courts, which include: (1) State Governments have been requested from time to time to take action well in advance for filling up of vacancies of President and Members and to maintain a panel of candidates for filling up of future vacancies also to avoid delay in appointments. (2) Circuit Benches from National Commission have been frequently visiting States. (3) Some State Commissions have constituted Additional Benches mainly to dispose off backlog of pending cases. (4) The National Commission and some of the State Commissions as well as District Fora are adopting the process of holding Lok Adalats for speedy disposal of the cases. (5) Financial assistance is provided by the Central Government to the States/UTs for strengthening of infrastructure of Consumer Fora including computerization and networking. The details are given in Annexure I. This information was given by the Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Shri Raosaheb Patil Danve in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.
