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The PIL was filed by Basavanagowda Patil, students of National Law School of India University, Bangalore (NLSIU) and an NGO. According to the petitioners, under the right to information Act (RTI), as many as 4,393 cases were pending in the state commission and 4,211 cases in various district forums till July 2012. Even though the Central government had asked Karnataka to set up an additional Bench way back in 2004, to clear some 2,700 cases which were pending then, the state did not take any steps. In August 2012, the state replied saying the finance department did not approve filling the vacant posts.
Says a senior member of a Karnataka Consumer Forum: “The vacancies are not being filled by the state government. But we are giving priority to old cases and those filed by senior citizens. There are even cases pending since 2008.”
According to data from the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC), since its inception, the commission has disposed of 86.96 per cent cases and 10,230 cases are pending with it (as on November 30, 2012). In comparison, all the state commissions together have solved 84 per cent cases with 93,839 pending before them.
The number of consumer forums are not very encouraging in many states. ”For a population of 25 million in Mumbai, there are only four Benches and even those are non-functional for the past seven months due to lack of human resources,” says Mumbai-based senior consumer lawyer Uday Wavikar.
Even if there are lawyers, reliability is an issue, says consumer activist Jehangir Gai. “Many times, we see those practising in consumer courts are the ones who have not succeeded in civil or criminal courts,” he says. There are very few exclusive consumer lawyers and activists in the field.
No lawyer wants to be appointed at consumer courts, say consumer lawyers and activists. Reason: poor pay and poor facilities. There are not even decent toilets in most forums, say lawyers. Also, the rooms are much smaller measuring just 10X10, and there not enough seats. Sample this, a high court lawyer earns Rs 30,000-40,000 per appearance, going up to Rs 3 lakh. In comparison, a consumer lawyer either gets a lumpsum of Rs 30,000-40,000 and Rs 5,000-10,000 per appearance provided he/she is a veteran. Juniors are given only Rs 3,000. Many non-judicial employee earn Rs 500-750 per case.
On the other hand, filing a consumer case is also not easy. “The idea behind consumer courts was speedy justice to consumers without going to court or lawyers. Grievance written on a piece of paper was also accepted. But, no longer,” says Bangalore-based consumer activist Y G Muralidharan. “Consumer courts were not supposed to charge fees also. But, now they levy a fee. The fee is not huge, but there are all sort of claims asked for. If you claim for Rs 500, it does not make sense to pay Rs 200 as fee.” This norm was part of the third amendment of the Consumer Protection Act in 2011.
| You can file a complaint before a consumer forum, only if you are a consumer, not if the transaction is business related |
| Give notice in writing to service provider for him to rectify his faults; give one month notice |
| Approach District Forum if claim amount is up to Rs 20 lakh, State Forum if between Rs 20 lakh and Rs 1 crore and National Commission if more than Rs 1 crore |
| Complaint must be filed within 2 years of the cause of action (grievance) |
| Complaint should be typed, double spaced, with at least one-and-a-half-inch margin on all sides |
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Arrange the complaint in the following order and number all documents - Index giving the page number(s) of each document - Complaint giving details of the grievance, preferably in chronological order, ground on which relief is claimed and the relief amount - Complainant should sign the Complaint - Either appear before the Forum yourself or ask a close relative or an advocate to do so - If an advocate is to appear, enclose a Vakalatnama; your advocate does all paper work and attends the hearings |
| If close relative is to appear, enclose a letter of authority |
| Affidavit that the contents of the complaint are true |
| Copies of documents that support your case |
| Submit one original and 2 xerox copies of the complaint; if admitted, submit as many copies as the number of opposite parties |
Add to that money is also charged for expenses for stamps and envelops. Muralidharan remembers a client’s case wasn't notified for three months after filing the complaint because they did not have funds for buying postal stamps and envelops. He then filed 10-15 RTI applications to find out if other courts were also charging for stamps and envelops and all confirmed they do. Then, lawyers charge over and above the pre-decided fee if you win the case based on the compensation received.
The process to file a complaint is also very technical. Complaint should be typed, double spaced, with at least one-and-a-half-inch margin on all sides. Also complaint-related documents should be arranged in a particular order, without which it wont be accepted. And the documents should be numbered. There should also be a content index prepared giving the page number(s) of each document. And this is after the laws have been streamlined.
Then the problem arises if you want to fight your own case. The Consumer Protection Act allows complainants to fight their own case. However, lawyers and judges discourage this. Firstly, you should be in the know of all nuances of consumer law to appear for the case. The dearth of good consumer lawyers, expensive civil lawyers, has added to the problem. When you appear on your own, there are higher chances of the court adjourning the case frequently and the judge constantly requesting you to take a consumer lawyer's help, say experts. And lawyers also do not let the case proceed if you haven’t hired one. Result: complainant will be so frustrated with adjournment that he/she will either quit or hire a lawyer.
“I would advise taking help of a lawyer because of the time taken for each case,” says Wavikar.
On an average, a consumer court case takes three years to get over with at least 30-40 dates each. “It isn't possible for any one to leave their business 30-40 times to fight a case,” he points out.
| Cost of a case | |
| District Forum | |
| For claims upto Rs 1 lakh | Rs 100 |
| For claims of Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh | Rs 200 |
| For claims of Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh | Rs 400 |
| For claims of Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh | Rs 500 |
| State Commission | |
| For claims of Rs 20 lakh to Rs 50 lakh | Rs 2,000 |
| For claims of Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1 crore | Rs 4,000 |
| National Commission | |
| A flat fee of Rs 5,000 | |
Vasanth Kumar Parigi, managing trustee of Consumer Education Centre, Bangalore, says the orders given by consumer courts are not taken seriously as there is no one to see if the orders are being carried out. “In case an arrest has to be made in a consumer complaint, the civil court has to give the arrest order. That has its own procedure. This means despite an order in hand, the consumer has to do the running around for implementation, which is something the consumer court could follow up on but often does not,” he said.
