CHENNAI: WHEN the Consumer Protection Act provides the remedy of approaching the competent forum -- State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commissionand the National Commission at New Delhi -- aggrieved persons cannot move the High Courts straight away without availing such remedies, the Madras High Court has ruled.
A division bench gave the ruling while dismissing a writ petition from Prist University in Royapettah seeking to quash the proceedings pending before the State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission.
Dismissing the petition, the bench observed that the petitioner cannot approach the High Court without exhausting the machinery/hierarchy enshrined under the Consumer Protection Act.
When the law provides for adequate remedy of approaching the competent forum at various levels, filing of the present petition is per se not maintainable, the court further said.