Thirty-year-old Yogesh was still a teenager when his father Mohan Prasad started fighting a case against Employee State Insurance Hospital at the Consumer Dispute Redressal Forum (CDRF). Now 15 years later, the son will most likely have a closure to what his father started - justice for his brother who lost his life during a surgical operation in 2007.
Yogesh says his 13-year-old brother passed away after the hospital operated on his stomach instead of treating the leg injury he had been admitted for. "The hospital called the police, who called us at 4 am to inform us about my brother’s death. We filed a case against the hospital and the Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESI) at the CDRF (West) in Janakpuri stating that there was medical negligence that led to the demise of the young boy," recalls Yogesh.
"The evidence concluded way back in 2008, but arguments have not been heard for the last 13-14 years. In fact, even the constitution of the medical board was also directed after the conclusion of evidence," says Yogesh. Today, Yogesh is alone in this fight. "My father passed away a couple of years ago fighting the case and now I am taking care of it."
After years of being unsuccessful in getting justice at the consumer forum, Yogesh filed a writ petition in the Delhi High Court where the court observed that delay in the case was a cause for 'consternation'.
"Delay of 14 years has taken place, despite the parties having concluded evidence within one year of the filing of the complaint, because the forum has not finally heard the matter and passed the final judgment. There can be no justification for such a long delay in finally hearing the matter," said Justice Pratibha Singh, while hearing the matter. The high court then directed the forum to take a decision by December 20.
Let the numbers do the talking
According to the data on Confonet (Computerisation and Computer Networking of Consumer Forums in Country), the disposal rate of cases in consumer forums of Delhi has been falling since 2018, getting increasingly worse to a point that no case has been disposed of in 2020-21. This has led to a massive pendency of cases.
Now the COVID-19 pandemic can be blamed for non-disposal of cases in 2020-21, but in 2019 only 614 cases were disposed of. As a result, the disposal rate fell by 61 per cent. Since 2011, the pendency of cases has increased 2.5 times, when there were 6,335 cases pending in Delhi consumer forums. The pendency peaked in 2020 at 94 per cent.
At present, a whopping 15,314 cases are yet to be heard. As of November 21, 2021, Delhi State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission saw 92 per cent adjournments of the total cases heard.
Winding path
The statute says that a consumer complaint may be disposed of as expeditiously as possible and an endeavour shall be made to decide the complainant within 3 to 5 months from the date of receipt of notice. Then why are these forums taking years to dispose of cases?
The practice of adjournments being asked by the counsels and thereby giving long dates by the Commissions are other causes for the setback, says advocate Kumar Deepraj.
"In one of my matters, the National Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission (NCDRC) gave 13 months adjournment merely on the grounds that the arguing counsel of the opposite party had recently got married. Long adjournments on such hollow grounds clearly defeat the purpose of consumer laws,"
says Deepraj.
"Consumer forums across Delhi do not have any accountability and have been functioning with a lackadaisical approach," says Advocate FK Jha, who was Mohan Prasad's counsel in the Delhi High Court.
The sorry state of affairs of the consumer complainants, Deepraj says, can be ascertained from the fact that matters filed in 2015-16 are yet to get adjudicated.
Costly litigation
As the courts keep extending dates and the cases continue to remain in limbo, the litigants lose hope. In many cases the amount spent on fighting a case in a consumer forum exceeds the amount litigants seek, which is why they lose interest, says Jha. In time, the litigants are no longer able to pay the expensive fees charged by counsels and let go of the compensation amount.
In one of the cases where Jha is the counsel, the consumer forum was unable to direct the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to provide compensation of Rs 2 lakh to a litigant who had filed a case in 2008 against the authority as they did not provide him the house he had bought.
"Ramu Baru and his son Rajesh Gupta bought a DDA flat, but the authority did not allot them a flat after taking the money," states Jha.
In 2007, the father-son duo filed a case in consumer forum. After Baru's death, Rajesh continued fighting the case. But now, says Jha, Rajesh has lost interest after spending a lot of time and money to get a compensation of Rs 2 lakh. Jha is planning to go to high court on Rajesh's behalf.
Tangled in legal jargon
Meanwhile, consumer forums have started operating as courts as opposed to what was envisaged. Advocate Kumar Deepraj says a practice has been adopted by the consumer commissions, be it NCDRC, state commission or any district forum to follow the procedure of Civil Procedure Code, by asking Evidence Affidavit, Affidavit of Admission/Denial of Documents, whereas the Consumer Protection Act does not mandate such procedure. Deepraj further states, "These practices are one of the reasons to delay the disposal of a consumer complaint."
Lack of infrastructure and manpower are other factors that hamper case disposals. There is an acute shortage of staff for judicial officers as well. The Delhi State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission headed by Justice Sangita Dhingra Sehgal has only one member when it should have four members.
According to NCDRC data, there are only 10 supporting staff members when there should be 15. So, there are five vacant slots. "Stenographers toh hai hi nahi (there are no stenographers)…" notes Jha, adding, "Without stenographers, the forums do not type the orders and thus hearings get delayed."
Recently, the Supreme Court had ordered filling up vacant positions at the NCDRC as well as the various State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commissions. A hearing is underway in the apex court on the vacancy in the tribunals.
The Supreme Court had instructed the government to file an assessment report which revealed that 50.4 per cent of the posts of members in State Commissions are lying vacant and 45.4 per cent in the District Commissions.
The Report also notes that 54 per cent of District Commissions have inadequate infrastructure, 50 per cent face financial crunch, and 37 per cent do not have storage space.
Belling the cat
Critical of counsels' behaviour, Justice SN Dhingra, a retired high court judge says, that these courts have become lawyer-oriented instead of being litigant-oriented. "They seek adjournment to delay the matter and tire the litigants. Even for the smallest inconveniences, they demand adjournments," says Dhingra.
He further adds that when there can be 10-15 years long pendency of cases in SC, what can we say about consumer courts? Specialisation should be done in consumer forums as well. "Consumer forums should be brought to the mainstream… Why have they made it a retired judge court?" Dhingra wonders.
Advocate Deepraj says that another practice which the Consumer Commissions should adopt is to not mechanically grant adjournments. "A limit may be prescribed that a party will only be entitled to take 'x' times adjournment, like in Code of Civil Procedure, it is clearly prescribed that only three times adjournment should be allowed. Having a sufficient number of adjudicating members will also solve the problem," Deepraj adds.
Advocate FK Jha says high courts supervision is vital. "The high courts should supervise and a routine inspection of cases is required to generate accountability among these consumer forums," Jha added.
About the lack of stenographers, Justice Dhingra said that an order can be typed on a laptop and printed, what is the requirement of stenographers? "There are so many dictation softwares, the technology has gone ahead and beyond but our judiciary is still living in a primitive world," he said.
He adds that pleading forms, which are often lengthy and complicated, should be simplified. "There has to be a political will as well because without which no reforms can take place," concludes Dhingra.
The dragging on effect
As the courts keep extending dates and the cases continue to remain in limbo, the litigants lose hope. In many cases the amount spent on fighting a case in a consumer forum exceeds the amount litigants seek, which is why they lose interest, says Jha. In time, the litigants are no longer able to pay the expensive fees charged by counsels and let go of the compensation amount.
