NEWS & MARKETS
COMMENTARY
INTERVIEWS
CHAT
ARCHIVES

The Rediff Business Special: Are our consumer forums effective?

'Industry should have its own consumer complaints cells'

Rediff On The NeT has made arrangements to carry the transcript of the popular television programme Crossfire. We present the sixth of the series, which debates whether India's consumer forums are effective and features secretary, department of consumer affairs N N Mukherjee and convener of Common Cause, H D Shourie. The moderator: well-known economist, Sanjaya Baru.

Sanjaya Baru: Welcome to Crossfire, a programme of debate and discussion. The subject this evening is 'Are our consumer forums effective?'

Established over a decade ago to render speedy justice to consumers and to relieve civil courts of their burden, consumer forums have been criticised by voluntary organisations for not being very effective. Let us take a quick look at their track record.

The Consumer Forum in India is a three-tiered structure with one national forum, 32 state-level forums and 53 district level forums. According to the government, of the 1.3 million odd cases filed in these forums, almost 1 million cases have been disposed of so far. That gives them a success ratio of almost 75 per cent.

To discuss the issues relating to effectiveness of the consumer forums, we have with us N N Mukherjee, Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs and Mr H D Shourie, a well-known consumer affairs activist. But before we listen to them, let us hear the views of Manubhai Shah of the Consumer Education Research Centre and Rakesh Luthra, a practising advocate on consumer affairs in the Supreme Court.

Manubhai Shah: A major complaint against the consumer courts is that, against the statutory time limit, the complaints shall be disposed of within 90 days and when testing is required, within 150 days. But this has not happened.

Rakesh Luthra: I think the original intention of the law was that the consumer should approach the court or the forum as it is called, by himself and have the case decided within a short span of time. But now that medical negligence cases and complicated cases involving financial transactions are before the forums, lawyers are inevitable. You need lawyers to help you find your way through the morass of legislation.

SB: Mr Shourie, how effective have the consumer forums been in your experience?

H D Shourie: I can only say that they can be better. You see, hope had been generated all over the country by these consumer forums and one wished that they could have done better. But they haven't.

SB: What is the real problem?

HDS: The real problem is delays plus exasperation of the people -- which go on multiplying due to the delays. The disposals, as Mr Manubhai Shah said, take a very long time. The law lays down that a case will normally take 90 days -- not one case in the country has been decided in 90 days.

NN Mukherjee: I beg to differ with the last statement of Mr Shourie -- it is not correct. In fact we have collected statistics about cases which have been disposed of within the 90 days period and also within the 150 days period which Mr Manubhai Shah referred to.

We find that on an average, 25 per cent of cases have been disposed in the 90 days period and also within the 150 days period which Mr Manubhai Shah referred to. And this is the data that we have collected from the state government. Another 20-odd per cent is getting disposed in the 90 to 150 days period -- making a close to 50 per cent of cases getting disposed in the 150-day time limit, which to my mind, is not a bad record.

HDS: The fact that 20 to 25 per cent have been disposed of in 90 days by state governments, Mr Mukherjee, I am willing to challenge that. Not one case ever in the country has been disposed in 90 days! The entire time span from the date of filing to the date of disposal is extremely lengthy. You see, this is because the procedures are extremely tedious. When a consumer files a complaint the first date of hearing is given three months from now. I know because I receive so many exasperating letters!

NNM: No, coming back to the point you made about cases being disposed of within 90 days, now we are trying to remove the lacunae by amending the Act and by laying down that this notice has to be issued to the opposite party within a period of 21 days. This is one of the proposed amendments which will take care of the problem Mr Shourie has mentioned to a very large extent.

SB: Mr Shourie, do you think there is enough awareness among the consumers about this forum, especially at the district level?

HDS: There is. There is enough awareness among the people that a remedy is available. You see, for instance, at this point, all over the country, people are suffering from one thing seriously and that is the defrauding by a large number of finance companies. 30,000 finance companies have cheated scores of people to the tune of thousands of crores. Now everybody who has been defrauded is seeking the opportunity of going to the consumer court. But it is not working.

NNM: Yes, I do agree that awareness level has increased. If you take the number of cases filed in '94 in the various consumer courts and compare it with '98 you will find that the number of cases has more than doubled in this four-year period. So that is a very strong indicator.

SB: Mr Mukherjee, you were talking of quantitative increase in the number of consumer complaints -- but has this quantitative increase accompanied by a qualitative improvement?

NNM: I do think there has been a qualitative improvement also. Consumers have become much more aware of their rights.

HDS: It is not the quality alone, it is the procedure which is hampering the entire thing. You see, Consumer Forum is presided over by an officer of the district level of the rank of a judge. There are two other nominated members, out of which one is a lady. The nomination has to be made by the state government. And all the 532 consumer forums are supposed to have these district judges and these two persons.

But what's the reality? The district judge retires as his term is over and after that the fresh appointment doesn't happen. For months together the consumer forum doesn't function. Very often the district judge conveniently gives one hour a week for consumer courts. Is this how they are supposed to operate?

NNM: There are several constraints under which consumer courts are functioning. They don't have accommodation, office equipment, furniture. Sometimes even an adequate staff is lacking!

SB: Like a good central government officer you are saying the state governments are not doing enough.

NNM: No, I am not saying that. We have till date sanctioned Rs 58 crore (Rs 580 million) to the state governments and the Union Territories for improvement of infrastructure. Unfortunately, what we find is that it does not reach the intended beneficiary in many cases.

SB: Let's move to a different issue. We have at the national level what is called the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission, the MRTPC. There have been lot of complaints that the government has not been serious about the MRTPC. Now when the government has not been serious about the MRTPC, why should we consumers of this country believe that the government is serious about consumer courts?

NNM: Well, let me now tell you that at least as far as the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission is concerned, it has its full complement of members as of date.

HDS: Now!

NNM: Yes, since January this year.

HDS: For eight to nine months they did not have all the members.

NNM: I can't speak on behalf of the Company Affairs Department which is concerned with the MRTPC, but as far as the National Commission is concerned, it has its full complement of members and they are fully functional as of date. I do agree with Mr Shourie that there was a period when the chairman was not there.

HDS: The Chairman had retired and the new incumbent took almost nine months to be appointed!

NNM: No, no, let me correct that. Before that, Justice Faizuddin was appointed; we had second thoughts and he did not join even though his appointment had been approved. Subsequently, we had to begin the procedure all over again.

SB: As a consumer affairs activist do you think that all these are sinecures for retired judges or do you see real commitment?

HDS: It is not a question of sinecures. It is the handling by the state governments. State governments have to take more interest in these matters.

SB: As a government official, what are your complaints against NGOs?

NNM: Well, what I think is many of the smaller organisations don't respond promptly to any query which we make. I mean we sanction money to them but we would like to know within a reasonable span of time what they do with that money allocated for a particular purpose. Has it been properly utilised? And then we find the response is inadequate.

SB: Mr Shourie, how would you respond to that?

HDS: I agree with Mr Mukherjee but what I meant was that there should be more public spirited people, knowledgeable, who should take responsibility towards what more can be done. It is not only the printing of a letterhead that is a consumer forum. It should be something more. They should say all right, we are concerned and we should help the people.

NNM: I would like to bring in yet another issue here and that is the role of industry. In fact, if at the industry level itself consumer complaints can be sorted out then the burden on the consumer courts would be lessened considerably.

HDS: In fact, I have been advocating that the industry should have its own cells where the consumer complaints can be sorted out rather than the complaints should be lodged in the courts.

SB: What has been your experience so far?

HDS: Unfortunately that has not happened.

NNM: No, but Mr Shourie, trade bodies like the CII, FICCI or the ASSOCHAM have set up their consumer cells and forums. I think what we need to do is to impress upon these bodies to let the message filter down.

HDS: Industrial enterprises should set up their own in-house organisations.

NNM: And I think they should also enforce a code of ethics, a code of conduct. I think that is very important. It is not enough for the apex trade bodies to set up their own divisions.

SB: One last question, do you think the consumer forums in the country are working the way you would like them to?

NNM: I think they are working the way they should. But I also think there is room and need for improvement.

SB: Mr Shourie, a last word on the effectiveness of the Consumer Forum.

HDS: I definitely think they can be effective, but unfortunately, all of them are not, I want all of them to be effective. Out of the 530-odd consumer courts, 20, 50 are effective. But what happens to others?

SB: Well, that is all the time we have for tonight. Thank you for joining us on Crossfire.

EARLIER CROSSFIRE TRANSCRIPTS:
'PSU divestment is degenerating into a fund-raising exercise'
Opening up the insurance sector: 'Will financial infrastructure be with Indians or with MNCs?'
Takeovers, mergers, acquisitions: 'Companies still treated as family property'
Is the tariff structure hurting Indian industry?
The BJP's national agenda for governance

Kind Courtesy: IN TV

Specials