Justice delayed to thousands as staff crunch plagues TN consumer courts

At a time when the Central government is tightening the screws on consumer courts across the country, especially by the passing of the new Consumer Protection Act last year to ensure speedier disposal of cases, such courts in the State are, however, left reeling under acute staff shortage as a result of which several thousands of cases lie pending.

According to the Consumer Protection Act of 1986, it aimed at providing protection for consumers by setting up consumer protection councils at the district andstate levels.

The cases where the value of the claim is up to Rs 20 lakh can be filed in district consumer redressal councils, and those exceeding Rs 20 lakh and within Rs 1 crore should be filed in the State consumer redressal council.

While a district consumer redressal council has a president and two members, a male and a female, to help in speedy disposal of cases, such consumer redressal councils at the district level are reportedly facing an acute shortage of presidents and members due to which several cases are pending across the State.

As a result of the shortage of presidents in several district redressal councils, the president of one district redressal council often has to attend cases in two other district consumer councils.

Commenting on the issue, Sadagopan, a consumer activist based in Avadi, said, “Due to shortage of district presidents, the president of Tiruvallur consumer district redressal forum is in-charge of Vellore and Chengalpattu districts and in such circumstances, there will be huge delay in pendency of cases”.

He added the delay in appointment of presidents and members to such complaint redressal councils is due to the bureaucratic red tape where the government does not keep tab on the persons who are about to retire and also is not keen on filling up vacancies.

According to sources in the consumer redressal department, in 25 district consumer redressal councils, there is vacancy in the post of president in 18 districts and as far as the position of members are concerned, there are 36 vacancies, including 19 reserved for females.

“The total sanctioned strength of presidents is 30 and only 12 were filled, and the total sanctioned strength of members is 64 outof which only 28 were filled,” sources said. Further, sources in the State consumer redressal council said that close to 10,000 cases are pending across the State, including close to 4,000 in the State consumer redressal council. More number of pending cases are in metro cities such as Chennai, Coimbatore and Madurai due to better awareness on consumer rights, they added.

When contacted, S Saroja, director, Citizen consumer and civic Action Group (CAG), said, “The Centre has brought a new Act on consumer rights in 2019 and the discussion on framing rules is still going on. One of the reasons for such huge number of vacancies in consumer courts in the State is due to the delay in framing rules, but even before the Act was passed, the vacancies were still high”.

She also said the Department of Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection gives too much importance to civil supplies and does not care much about consumer protection due to which there is delay in appointment of presidents and members across the State.

Although A Shankar, president of the Tamil Nadu Consumer Dispute Redressal Forum Members Association raised the issue of vacancies in the district consumer redressal councils to the State government in a petition, he said no action has so far been taken on it.

“The government should take immediate steps to fill the vacancies and should finish the pending cases at the earliest,” he said.

Asked of the issue, DayanandKataria, secretary, Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection Department, who is the one of the key appointing authorities in consumer courts, said, “Usually the department receives recommendation from the State consumer redressal council and once we receiverecommendations, the vacancies will be filled”.