NEW DELHI: Maharashtra tops the list of states with maximum number of consumer cases filed. This is not only in the National Consumer Redressal Disputes Resolution (NCRDC), but also in the district consumer courts. Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Delhi follow in that order when it comes to filing consumer dispute cases.
The statute says that a consumer complaint may be disposed of as expeditiously as possible and an endeavour shall be made to take a decision within three to five months of receiving the complaint.
A look at the data pertaining to the national capital shows that the disposal rate of cases has been falling since 2018. It is getting increasingly bad to a point that no case has been disposed of in 2020-21. Naturally, this has led to a massive pendency of cases.
The Covid-19 pandemic can be blamed for the high non-disposal of cases in 2020-21. But then, 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.
In many cases, the amount spent on fighting a case in a consumer forum exceeds the amount litigants seek. Lack of infrastructure and manpower are other factors that hamper case disposals. There is an acute shortage of staff for judicial officers as well. For example, the Delhi State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has only one member when it should have four.
According to data available with NCDRC, there are only 10 supporting staff members when there should be 15. So, there are five vacant slots. The phenomenon of vacancies increasing steadily was also noticed by the Supreme Court. Earlier this week, the apex court of the country directed all the states and Union Territories to fill up vacancies by January 2022.
Disposals dipping
The rate of disposal of these cases has not been very high in the last few years. Pandemic, lack of infrastructure/manpower and shortage of staff for judicial officers are among the reasons of low disposals
