Right to Redressal

The right to seek redressal against unfair trade practices or restrictive trade practices or unscrupulous exploitation of consumers’ is referred to as the right to redressal according to the Consumer Protection Act 1986. The government of India has been bit more successful with regard to this right. The Consumer courts like District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forums at district level, State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commissions and National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commissions have been incorporated with the help of the consumer protection act. These consumer grievance redressal agencies have fiduciary as well as geographical jurisdictions which address consumer cases between businesses and consumers.

About 20 lakhs Consumer cases are heard in the district consumer forum, and around one crore can be heard in the state consumer court while more than one crore cases are heard at national consumer court. It has been found that if one becomes guardian of consumer protection or consumer rights in the country these courts today are found to be ineffective because of bureaucratic sabotages, clogged cases, callousness of government and decadent infrastructure. Only some of the district forums have appointed officials for time being and majority of them are non-functional because of funding and infrastructure constraints. There are around 20-30 million open cases in India which remain unsolved and would take around 320 years to wind up. Having such type of compromised legal system the consumer cases form just civil litigations and are carried forward to the bottom of the priority list. It is estimated that India is 10 years away in effectively ensuring the right to redressal to every consumer of India.