Consumers finally get quick redressal, but major problems remain

The judges don't wear any robes, the complainant need not hire a lawyer, there are no court fees, and the witness box collects dust in a corner. In consumer courts throughout the country, a new quasi-judicial tradition is being created as ordinary people seek quick justice against a variety of offenders - crooked builders, tardy insurance companies, manufacturers of defective goods, or inefficient public utility companies.

Major road-blocks do remain, raising questions about the effectiveness of the Consumer Protection Act (copra), enacted in 1986 to provide speedy redressal to consumers. Yet, as H.D. Shourie, well-known' consumer rights activist and founder of Common Cause, observes: "Nothing now is beyond the reach of the consumers, and they are realising it."

The statistics are impressive: till December 1991, one lakh cases were heard at the district level, 5,000 at the state level, and 300 at the national level. An estimated 50 per cent of these cases have already been disposed of. Andhra Pradesh, which has almost 200 of the country's 500 consumer rights organisations, topped the list with approximately 22,000 cases. Maharashtra followed with 10,000 cases.
Most of the consumers were delighted by the speedy disposal of cases. In Kerala, a car owner sued Maruti Udyog Limited for supplying a defective car under the NRI scheme, and the company was ordered to replace it. In September, the state's consumer commission created another stir by asking an advocate to pay Rs 51,500 as compensation to his client for providing inadequate professional service.

In Bhopal, a retired engineer, Suresh Chandra Rastogi, got back his Rs 10,000 deposit with interest from Sipani Automobiles after several letters failed to evoke a response from the Bangalore car manufacturer. Says a beaming Rastogi: "I hardly spent any money on the case, and got my deposit back just six months after I complained to the district forum.