Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Piyush Goyal launch a host of new initiatives, including the right to repair portal and an NTH mobile app and open new premises of National Consumer Helpline centre in the national capital.
A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was also sign between the Consumer Affairs Department and IIT (BHU), Varanasi as well launch a capacity building programme of consumer commissions.
These initiatives were launch on the occasion of the National Consumer Day.
Minister of State for Food and Consumer Affairs Sadhvi Niranjan Jyothi, Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh, National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) President RK Agrawal were also present at the event.
On the ‘right to repair’ portal, manufacturers will share the manual of product details with customers so that they can either repair by self, by third parties, rather than depend on original manufacturers.
Initially, mobile phones, electronic, consumer durables, automobile and farming equipments will be cover.
Piyush Goyal laud the consumer commissions for disposing of higher number of pending cases in last six months and express confidence of eliminating the backlog of cases across India.
Piyush Goyal Said :
“In a short span of six months, we have doubled disposal of pending cases. About 90,000 pending cases were disposed (between July and November this year),”.
About 38,000 pending cases were dispose of by consumer courts in the year-ago period.
Piyush Goyal said there will be ramp up in the disposal of pending cases and elimination of the backlog in the days to come.
The consumer empowerment is going to be a paramount feature of a develop India and call for keeping consumers at the centre of all the initiatives, Piyush Goyal said.
Piyush Goyal also said his ministry is making efforts keeping in mind what the prime minister has articulate convergency, capacity building, and climate change to make consumers’ life easier and promote ease of doing business.
Piyush Goyal emphasise that 3T’s, Technology, Training and Transparency will help towards achieving greater consumer awareness and greater service to our consumers.
Minister of State for Food and Consumer Affairs Sadhvi Niranjan Jyothi said it is a good sign that the pendency of consumer cases are reducing which gives confidence to consumers that they will get justice.
Under the Consumer Protection law, a complaint is require to be dispose of within 90 days of its filing and within 150 days wherever expert evidence is require to be taken.
NCDRC President RK Agrawal said :
“No one expects a case to be decided overnight. However, difficulty arises when the actual time take for disposal of the case far exceeds its expected life span and a question is raised about the efficacy and efficiency of consumer commissions.”
When the law mandates quick disposal of cases, many years of delay in in deciding the cases always puts a “stigma” on he object for which the commissions were establish in the 1986 act, RK Agrawal said, adding that there is a need to look into reasons for the delay.
RK Agrawal said the disposal rate of complaints in the consumer commissions has on an average of 89%.
Since inception of consumer commissions, there is still a backlog of 6.24 lakh cases as on 16th December 2022.
RK Agrawal Said :
This “reveals that the consumer commissions have not been able to meet the expectations of the consumers and have in fact been under severe strain to fullfill the objectives for which they were enacted,”.
RK Agrawal also said the pendency in national consumer commission is also not impressive as the pending cases were 22,896 as on 16th December 2022.
The COVID-19 pandemic, rise in cases owing increase consumer awareness, non-functioning of consumer commissions, lack of infrastructure, resource manpower and funds, unnecessary adjournments, scope of multiple appeal are some of the reasons behind huge backlog of cases, RK Agrawal said.
RK Agrawal said the backlog cannot be wipe out without additional strength particularly when the institution of cases is likely to increase and no come down in the coming years.
RK Agrawal Said :
“Wherever the pendency is more than 4,000 cases, mandate of law of having additional Benches should be followed to clear the backlog,”.
Also RK Agrawal said the state governments have to take action well in advance in 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.
Among many others, RK Agrawal also suggest clubbing of similar or connected matters, granting at least limited financial autonomy to the consumer commissions, reducing unnecessary adjournments besides following the principles of natural justice and adjudication through summary trials.
While, Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh said the department held a special drive ‘Lok Adalat’ and ‘Grahak Madhyastata Samadhan’ to settle the pending cases and such initiatives will be continued in future.
Talking about future challenges facing consumers due to technology advancement, Rohit Kumar Singh said that Meta verse, dark patterns in advertising, and ban ads on social media are some aspects that the department need to analyse the regulatory landscape to protect the consumer interest and make it safe.
There are approx 673 consumer commissions in India.
