Business Standard: Bangalore:
Monday, February 11, 2013.
Recently, the
Karnataka High Court issued a notice to the government on a public interest
litigation (PIL) seeking a directive for filling up vacancies in the Consumer
Commission and several district forums in the state. According to the
provisions of the Act, a case has to be disposed of within 90 days. But the
petitioners claimed that many cases were pending beyond 180 days due to
inadequate manpower in consumer courts.
The PIL was
filed by Basavanagowda Patil, students of National Law School of India
University, Bangalore (NLSIU) and an NGO. According to the petitioners, under
the right to information Act (RTI), as many as 4,393 cases were pending in the
state commission and 4,211 cases in various district forums till July 2012.
Even though the Central government had asked Karnataka to set up an additional
Bench way back in 2004, to clear some 2,700 cases which were pending then, the
state did not take any steps. In August 2012, the state replied saying the
finance department did not approve filling the vacant posts.
Says a senior
member of a Karnataka Consumer Forum: “The vacancies are not being filled by
the state government. But we are giving priority to old cases and those filed
by senior citizens. There are even cases pending since 2008.”
According to
data from the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC), since
its inception, the commission has disposed of 86.96 per cent cases and 10,230
cases are pending with it (as on November 30, 2012). In comparison, all the
state commissions together have solved 84 per cent cases with 93,839 pending
before them.
The number of
consumer forums are not very encouraging in many states. ”For a population of
25 million in Mumbai, there are only four Benches and even those are
non-functional for the past seven months due to lack of human resources,” says
Mumbai-based senior consumer lawyer Uday Wavikar.
Even if there
are lawyers, reliability is an issue, says consumer activist Jehangir Gai.
“Many times, we see those practising in consumer courts are the ones who have
not succeeded in civil or criminal courts,” he says. There are very few
exclusive consumer lawyers and activists in the field.
No lawyer
wants to be appointed at consumer courts, say consumer lawyers and activists.
Reason: poor pay and poor facilities. There are not even decent toilets in most
forums, say lawyers. Also, the rooms are much smaller measuring just 10X10, and
there not enough seats. Sample this, a high court lawyer earns Rs 30,000-40,000
per appearance, going up to Rs 3 lakh. In comparison, a consumer lawyer either
gets a lumpsum of Rs 30,000-40,000 and Rs 5,000-10,000 per appearance provided
he/she is a veteran. Juniors are given only Rs 3,000. Many non-judicial
employee earn Rs 500-750 per case.
On the other
hand, filing a consumer case is also not easy. “The idea behind consumer courts
was speedy justice to consumers without going to court or lawyers. Grievance
written on a piece of paper was also accepted. But, no longer,” says
Bangalore-based consumer activist Y G Muralidharan. “Consumer courts were not
supposed to charge fees also. But, now they levy a fee. The fee is not huge,
but there are all sort of claims asked for. If you claim for Rs 500, it does
not make sense to pay Rs 200 as fee.” This norm was part of the third amendment
of the Consumer Protection Act in 2011.
Add to that
money is also charged for expenses for stamps and envelops. Muralidharan
remembers a client’s case wasn't notified for three months after filing the
complaint because they did not have funds for buying postal stamps and
envelops. He then filed 10-15 RTI applications to find out if other courts were
also charging for stamps and envelops and all confirmed they do. Then, lawyers
charge over and above the pre-decided fee if you win the case based on the
compensation received.
The process
to file a complaint is also very technical. Complaint should be typed, double
spaced, with at least one-and-a-half-inch margin on all sides. Also
complaint-related documents should be arranged in a particular order, without
which it wont be accepted. And the documents should be numbered. There should
also be a content index prepared giving the page number(s) of each document.
And this is after the laws have been streamlined.
Then the
problem arises if you want to fight your own case. The Consumer Protection Act
allows complainants to fight their own case. However, lawyers and judges
discourage this. Firstly, you should be in the know of all nuances of consumer
law to appear for the case. The dearth of good consumer lawyers, expensive
civil lawyers, has added to the problem. When you appear on your own, there are
higher chances of the court adjourning the case frequently and the judge
constantly requesting you to take a consumer lawyer's help, say experts. And
lawyers also do not let the case proceed if you haven’t hired one. Result:
complainant will be so frustrated with adjournment that he/she will either quit
or hire a lawyer.
“I would
advise taking help of a lawyer because of the time taken for each case,” says
Wavikar.
On an
average, a consumer court case takes three years to get over with at least
30-40 dates each. “It isn't possible for any one to leave their business 30-40
times to fight a case,” he points out.
In regular
courts, ex-parte orders are also given if any of the parties is unable to make
it due to some reason. However, in consumer courts, the case is put on hold and
the party is asked to make an application for being absent, if the judge is
convinced the case is heard or a fresh application needs to be made to a higher
authority, Gai adds.
Vasanth Kumar
Parigi, managing trustee of Consumer Education Centre, Bangalore, says the
orders given by consumer courts are not taken seriously as there is no one to
see if the orders are being carried out. “In case an arrest has to be made in a
consumer complaint, the civil court has to give the arrest order. That has its
own procedure. This means despite an order in hand, the consumer has to do the
running around for implementation, which is something the consumer court could
follow up on but often does not,” he said.
‘The consumer
forum didn’t have the money to send notice to the defendant’
Bangalore-based Shakuna N is fed up with the
Karnataka State Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission. The irony is, the
70-year old is a consumer activist and writer herself. She has been to the
court nine times in the past two years for a case she has filed. She has all
the documents ready, which can help her win the case, but the case is still
dragging on. The next hearing is on the 21st of this month.
Shakuna’s
case is simple: Her digital camera’s battery compartment had been faulty since
the time she bought it two years ago. Shakuna approached the showroom from
where she had bought the camera to get the problem rectified or get it
replaced. The executives at the showroom told her that the camera was working
fine and returned it to her. However, the next time Shakuna tried to use the
camera, battery problems would erupt. She would go back to the showroom and the
executives would tell her all is fine the camera. This happened a couple of
times.
Then she had
to go abroad on a three-month trip. “This was on a important trip abroad and
the battery compartment started troubling me again,” she recalls. Soon after
she returned from the trip, Shakuna went back to the showroom. But they refused
to repair the camera saying something must have gone wrong when it was being
used abroad. The company also refused to replace it.
Shakuna
approached the state consumer forum. She filed the case and was to appear for
herself. A month later when Shakuna checked the status of her case, she was
told the opposite party was yet to be informed! The consumer forum’s allocation
had been cut and so the complainant needed to provide for stamps and envelope.
When Shakuna enquired about this new norm, she learnt this was being done at
the court's level.
“It's not
that you can just pay and get away. I was given the exact stamp denomination
and asked to buy stamps, envelop and even send it to the opposite party. If you
request the consumer court employees to help you buy and mail the notices, they
say they cannot take money because Consumer Protection Act does not ask the
complainant to incur this cost. As a result, getting the notice made and
sending was delayed by two months, which should be done in 15 days,” Shakuna
recalls.
Additionally,
there is no fix on the value of stamps required for this purpose. “I remember I
was asked to buy stamps worth Rs 25, at the same time another gentleman was
asked to buy stamps worth Rs 75 and a third person was told the court will do
the needful. If you question, you are threatened that your case will not be
taken up,” she says.
The judge
always asks to summarise the case in a minute. Once Shakuna and the opposite
party are done, she says, the next date for hearing is given and the file is closed
for the day.
In many
cases, especially if the opposite party is a heavyweight, they can drag the
case for months or even for years.
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