Soon, sue neighbourhood traders sans the legal rut

Many consumers don't approach courts for small disputes fearing the long-drawn legal process and drainage of huge financial resources resulting in the Consumer Protection Act not having its impact, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Updated on: Dec 23, 2012, 23:23:11 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Your nearest consumer court will provide you relief from petty cheating you may face from a local shopkeeper or a service provider without going for a lengthy legal process.

Many consumers don't approach courts for small disputes fearing the long-drawn legal process and drainage of huge financial resources resulting in the Consumer Protection Act not having its impact.

Some, who approach, find consumer forums taking months to redress a small complaint because of huge pendency.

The disposal of the cases has been poor in eight states such as Assam, Bihar, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh primarily because of not enough members in the consumer forums in these states.

The consumer affairs ministry has decided to set up a mediation centre, similar to a Lok Adalat, in each district of India under direct supervision of the district consumer forum.

"It will also reduce burden on the consumer courts and will help in faster disposal of cases," a senior ministry official explained.

A Parliamentary Standing Committee has asked the ministry to expedite the proposal and make necessary amendment in the Consumer Protection Act to lessen the burden on consumer forums and ensure that complaints are disposed of within the mandatory 90 days of their acceptance.

A ministry's proposal in this regard has been accepted by the Planning Commission for incorporation in the 12th five-year plan.

A senior plan panel official said the proposal could also streamline the functioning of the district consumer forums.

The ministry has also decided to provide online facility to consumers to file complaints with the consumer forums at the earliest.

Most of the consumer forums in cities are computerized and filing of online complaints there would start soon.

Things would also become easier once the ministry introduces amendments to the Consumer Protection Bill based on the latest recommendations of the standing committee.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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