Consumer courts failing to deliver

Maha Has 19k Pending Cases At District Forums, National Figure Stands At 3.5L

Prerna Sodhi TNN 

(Source:::: The Times of India, 29-01-2013, p.14, http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Client.asp?Daily=TOIM&showST=true&login=default&pub=TOI&Enter=true&Skin=TOINEW&AW=1359520806776)

New Delhi:After being assured by a hospital that the health of the baby in her womb was normal, a woman was shocked to find out that her little one was born without a hand and a kidney. 
    She filed a complaint with the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) hoping justice would be done. She has been waiting for two years now. And joining her in the queue are thousands of others. 
    The country’s eyes may be on criminal cases right now, but consumer courts across India are in a mess like never before. According to data released by NCDRC, over 3.5 lakh cases were pending at various consumer courts till December 21, 2012. Of these, nearly 2.5 lakh are with district consumer forums, 93,839 with state forums and 10,230 with NCDRC. 
    This, when innumerable men and women just don’t file complaints at all, unwilling to go through the hassle of fighting big firms, institutions or companies. 
    Forget bringing down the volumes, some states forums, in fact, registered a significant increase in pending cases last year. In Gujarat, the number with the state forum jumped 44% — from 4,379 in December 2011 to 7,824 in December 2012. Similarly, in Delhi, it went up from 1,195 in December 2011 to 1,579 in December 2012. Experts believe that the statistics clearly reflect a “system working at very slow pace”. 
    Go down to the districts and the story gets worse. In UP, for instance, a staggering 75,722 aggrieved consumers are in queue with their petitions; 12,172 in Gujarat, and 19,249 in Maharashtra. It is 27,828 in Rajasthan. In Delhi, as per NCDRC data dated January 2012, the number of pending cases in district forums stand at 10,340. 
    A retired official of the Delhi state consumer forum who did not wish to be named said, “Even though in the last two years the number of pending cases in district forums has decreased, that decrease has been marginal.” Experts said that to prevent the numbers from rising further courts need to dispose of complaints at the rate they are being filed, which is proving to be tough given the existing pile-up, poor infrastructure and staff crunch. An official at the New Delhi district consumer forum says that on a daily basis they hear, on an average, 140 complaints. They are able to dispose only three. 
    Bejon Misra, a veteran consumer rights activist, said the number of petitions out there is hardly indicative of the amount of unfair practices that people have to endure. “Many just move on,” he said. “To deter these violations, forums should start penalizing companies and asking them why cases come to forums in the first place.” 
    Advocate Ankit Jain said there should be division of cases on a priority basis. 
    “People spend a lot of their hard earned money on real estate projects or insurances only to realize they are being harassed when the time comes to deliver on the promises. Certain cases should be acted upon immediately, as most companies benefit from the delay.”