HC appoints panel to look into consumer body's affairs

The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court has appointed a one-man panel to look into the service conditions for the judges, lawyers and litigants at the District Consumer Grievances Redressal Forum (DCGRF) here.

Justices Vijay Daga and S U Kamdar recently issued the directive on a plea by High Court Bar Association (HCBA), asking them to intervene in a writ petition filed by Raju Mishra, a sitting member of the DCGRF, seeking service conditions at par with the forum's president.

The petitioner has contended that the president of the forum is entitled for a remuneration of Rs 25,000 and other perks while he himself received a consolidated amount of Rs 4,000 per month, which he claimed was unjust and unreasonable in view of the disparity in paymeants.

Mishra contended that he received Rs 200 per sitting, making a monthly package of Rs 4,400 to Rs 4,800 for 24 sittings from which professional tax was deducted.

The nature of work of both, the member and the president is identical but the latter has been receiving sum at par with the last slab of the district judge, he argued.

Contending that the treatment meted out to him was contrary to the settled principles of labour jurisprudence, Mishra prayed for a direction to the respondent "" Maharashtra government "" to fix monthly salary and service conditions for a member of the forum or increase the consolidated honorarium.

The bench has appointed a retired district judge

M L Somalwar to look into the matter and asked him to submit his report within six weeks.