Consumer protection: India - Revision history

Jyoti: /* 2010- 2024 */

2026-04-18T07:45:44Z

‎2010- 2024

Jyoti: /* 2021 */

2026-04-18T07:36:25Z

‎2021

Jyoti: /* Consumer Forums’ powers */

2025-06-28T08:50:53Z

‎Consumer Forums’ powers

Jyoti: /* Consumer Forums’ performance */

2025-05-04T08:17:14Z

‎Consumer Forums’ performance

Jyoti: /* Shortfall in quantity */

2024-05-19T15:23:55Z

‎Shortfall in quantity

Jyoti: /* Aeroplane accidents */

2024-04-18T19:54:05Z

‎Aeroplane accidents

Jyoti: /* Charging for shopping bag invokes fine */

2023-11-20T18:56:12Z

‎Charging for shopping bag invokes fine

Jyoti: /* Shops */

2023-10-04T20:42:17Z

‎Shops

Jyoti: /* Consumer Protection Act */

2023-06-19T20:56:38Z

‎Consumer Protection Act

Pdewan: /* National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (decisions) */

2022-11-09T16:52:19Z

‎National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (decisions)

@@ Line 230: / Line 230: @@
 [https://epaper.indiatimes.com/article-share?article=19_03_2026_024_003_cap_TOI  March 19, 2026: ''The Times of India'']
-[[File: 2010- 2024: The performance of consumer forums, including state-wise.jpg|2010- 2024: The performance of consumer forums, including state-wise <br/> From: [https://epaper.indiatimes.com/article-share?article=19_03_2026_024_003_cap_TOI  March 19, 2026: ''The Times of India'']|frame|500px]]
+[[File: 2010- 2024- The performance of consumer forums, including state-wise.jpg|2010- 2024: The performance of consumer forums, including state-wise <br/> From: [https://epaper.indiatimes.com/article-share?article=19_03_2026_024_003_cap_TOI  March 19, 2026: ''The Times of India'']|frame|500px]]
 Consumer courts were set up to provide a fast and affordable grievance redress mechanism for the common citizen and reduce the burden on the judicial system. However, the Consumer Justice Report finds that pendency has crept up in these courts — where housing and insurance account for the bulk of cases — even though there is wide variation in the disposal rate among states.

← Older revision		Revision as of 07:36, 18 April 2026
Line 226:		Line 226:

	According to official data, amaximum of nearly 1. 7 lakh cases are related to insurance companies and 71,379 complaints are pending against banks. The total number of complaints related to the electricity sector is around 34,000.		According to official data, amaximum of nearly 1. 7 lakh cases are related to insurance companies and 71,379 complaints are pending against banks. The total number of complaints related to the electricity sector is around 34,000.
		+
		+	==2010- 2024==
		+	[https://epaper.indiatimes.com/article-share?article=19_03_2026_024_003_cap_TOI March 19, 2026: ''The Times of India'']
		+
		+	[[File: 2010- 2024: The performance of consumer forums, including state-wise.jpg\|2010- 2024: The performance of consumer forums, including state-wise <br/> From: [https://epaper.indiatimes.com/article-share?article=19_03_2026_024_003_cap_TOI March 19, 2026: ''The Times of India'']\|frame\|500px]]
		+
		+	Consumer courts were set up to provide a fast and affordable grievance redress mechanism for the common citizen and reduce the burden on the judicial system. However, the Consumer Justice Report finds that pendency has crept up in these courts — where housing and insurance account for the bulk of cases — even though there is wide variation in the disposal rate among states.
		+
		+	[[Category:India\|C CONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIA
		+	CONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIA]]
		+	[[Category:Law,Constitution,Judiciary\|C CONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIA
		+	CONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIA]]
		+	[[Category:Pages with broken file links\|CONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIA
		+	CONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIA]]

	=Consumer Forums’ powers=		=Consumer Forums’ powers=

← Older revision		Revision as of 08:50, 28 June 2025
Line 238:		Line 238:

	The case involved a man who bought a tractor in 2013 but failed to pay the remaining Rs 25,716. After repossession and resale of the tractor, the buyer filed a complaint in 2018. The forum directed the seller to release the tractor’s registration certificate after receiving the due amount, and an arrest warrant was issued against branch manager in Dec 2019. The manager, unaware of the case, challenged the forum’s authority to issuethe warrant.		The case involved a man who bought a tractor in 2013 but failed to pay the remaining Rs 25,716. After repossession and resale of the tractor, the buyer filed a complaint in 2018. The forum directed the seller to release the tractor’s registration certificate after receiving the due amount, and an arrest warrant was issued against branch manager in Dec 2019. The manager, unaware of the case, challenged the forum’s authority to issuethe warrant.
		+
		+	=B=
		+	=Class action=
		+	==As of 2025==
		+	[https://epaper.indiatimes.com/article-share?article=28_04_2025_020_025_cap_TOI Dipak Dash, April 28, 2025: ''The Times of India'']
		+
		+	A relative newcomer in the Indian grievance redress system, class action got its biggest shot in the arm yet this March when Delhi high court upheld Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA)’s guidelines barring hotels and restaurants from charging patrons a service tax.
		+
		+	Formed during the pandemic after the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, came into force, CCPA has made important interventions through class action, like refunds for flyers when planes were grounded during Covid. Class action itself became available as a legal recourse to enforce consumer rights after the Act laid down provisions for it, offering protection for consumers and providing an avenue for redress against companies engaging in unfair trade practices.
		+	The Act empowers CCPA to regulate matters relating to violation of rights of consumers, unfair trade practices and false or misleading advertisements that are prejudicial to the interests of the public and consumers, and to promote, protect and enforce the rights of “consumers as a class”.
		+
		+	CCPA became functional in difficult circumstances after the first wave of the pandemic because the consumer affairs department, which is its parent, didn’t wait for a full office with staff and manpower. It went ahead with whatever resources it had at its disposal then. The move paid off when CCPA made major interventions through class action, such as directing companies to withdraw misleading advertisements claiming to neutralise the novel coronavirus and ordering refunds for cancelled air travel.
		+
		+	“Since the idea of establishing CCPA was to take cognisance and act immediately when one saw a pattern of infringement of consumer rights, we went ahead with it rather than wait for posts to be created and an office to be set up,” former consumer affairs secretary Leena Nandan told TOI.
		+	To begin with, an additional secretary in the ministry was designated chief commissioner and a joint secretary was appointed as commissioner. Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and National Test House (NTH) were tasked with technical investigation.
		+
		+	''' Class Action & Outcomes '''
		+
		+	So far, CCPA has passed nearly 150 orders. Among these are class action cases. Post the first phase of the lockdown, it took cognisance of complaints lodged with National Consumer by people who had booked tickets in advance but could not fly because of the lockdown. Airlines and ticketing firms had not cleared refunds despite a Supreme Court order of April 20, 2020. After a series of hearings and warnings, all the refunds were issued.
		+
		+	Another such intervention came when it took suo motu cognisance of misleading advertisements by coaching centres, claiming success rate and high rank of students, particularly for civil service exams, and imposed nearly Rs 80 lakh in penalties over two years on two dozen institutes. It clubbed complaints lodged with NCH about enrolment fees they charged by making such claims and initiated class action that eventually got coaching institutes to collectively refund Rs 1.6 crore to the affected students.
		+
		+	That is also how it acted against food delivery platform Swiggy after NCH received 10,590 complaints of deficiency of services and delivery of defective or wrong products. It directed Swiggy to change its consumer grievance redress mechanism and ensure faster resolution of complaints. It took cognisance as well of 7,938 consumer complaints against Zomato, with directions to the aggregator to submit their resolution status. The directives were passed in Oct 2024.
		+
		+	Also, following a similar CCPA intervention in Dec 2024 — with more than 10,000 pending complaints for service deficiency, delivery delays, and a slow repair process against the company — Ola Electric addressed almost all the complaints. Among other important orders were the recall of non-ISI pressure cookers sold on e-commerce platforms and refund of payments to consumers and a Rs 10 lakh fine plus a directive to withdraw all misleading ads to Naaptol in 2022.
		+
		+	''' Where To Complain? '''
		+
		+	Consumer affairs secretary and chief commissioner of CCPA Nidhi Khare told TOI that similar complaints lodged with NCH are one of the criteria that trigger class action. “Sometimes, even a few complaints or sale of an item that poses a threat to consumer safety can become the basis for a class action,” she said.
		+	“While complaints can be sent to CCPA, we encourage people to lodge complaints with NCH. That helps us identify a pattern and initiate action to bring relief to a large section of consumers. The focus of CCPA and NCH is to strengthen grievance resolution at the pre-litigation stage without any financial burden on the consumer.”
		+
		+	CCPA can also be an avenue for the executive to step in, as proceedings on car seat-belt alarm-stoppers showed. The road transport ministry had approached CCPA to stop their sale by e-commerce companies, arguing that their manufacture and sale was illegal under Motor Vehicles Act. Amazon, Flipkart, Meesho, Snapdeal and Shopclues have since collectively delisted 13,118 stoppers.
		+
		+	''' Consumer Rights Get Teeth '''
		+
		+	The suo motu approach has led to a marked difference in the assertion of consumer rights compared to the earlier regime of the consumer affairs department issuing advisories. Companies could overlook those and the only practical option would be to go to the consumer forum.
		+
		+	Rohit Singh, a member of National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission and former consumer affairs secretary, said, “The establishment of CCPA marked a transformative moment in the evolution of consumer rights in India. For the first time, a dedicated statutory body has been empowered to take suo motu action against unfair trade practices, misleading advertisements, and rights violations. This has shifted the paradigm from reactive grievance redress to proactive market oversight.”
		+
		+	Ashim Sanyal, COO of Consumer Voice, added, “It’s clear now that if CCPA functioning is streamlined as an independent body with its own setup, it gives the regulatory framework the teeth it needs to stop business malpractices.”
		+
		+	''' Birth Of Class '''
		+
		+	Action The old law, the Consumer Protection Act, 1983, focused on individual consumer rights and lacked mechanisms to effectively address unfair trade practices and enforce product liability through class action. It provided for consumer forums at the district, state, and national levels, offering consumers an avenue to seek compensation for grievances related to goods and services. But it didn’t spell out mechanisms for regulatory interventions on behalf of the consumer.
		+
		+	Officials who dealt with the preparation of the new consumer protection law recalled that with the dissolution of Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission (MRTPC) and the emergence of Competition Commission of India (CCI), unfair trade practices no longer fell under direct regulatory scrutiny. While CCI concentrated on promoting fair competition, consumer issues such as misleading advertisements and deceptive pricing remained unaddressed. Without class action and product liability enforcement, it was difficult for consumers to seek justice against powerful corporations.
		+
		+	''' Learning From The US '''
		+
		+	G Gurucharan, former additional secretary in the consumer affairs department, said the regulatory gap led to the legislation of Consumer Protection Act, 2019. Sources said the idea of CCPA as a body that could initiate class action came from a conference where experts from the US talked about the impact of class action in their country and how companies complied with orders.
		+
		+	The US enacted Class Action Fairness Act in 2005, which lets one or more plaintiffs file or prosecute a suit on behalf of a larger group in federal courts. Class action results in orders or settlements that treat all class members as one, even those who are not part of the suit. Types of class action include securities litigation, school funding, and consumer product liability cases. Successful class action cases often result in hefty pre-trial settlements.
		+
		+	For filing a class-action suit in the US, a lawyer looks at a case to determine its strength and then files a complaint. A judge certifies class action based on the information provided.

	[[Category:India\|C CONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIA		[[Category:India\|C CONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIA

@@ Line 223: / Line 223: @@
 New Delhi : For the first time, the National Lok Adalat scheduled to be on November 12 across the country will take up and dispose of pending consumers cases through settlement, the consumer affairs ministry said on Thursday.  It said groundwork for this exercise has been initiated and all the consumer commissions have been intimated to identify and prepare a list of cases where there are chances of settlement and that can be referred to Lok Adalat.
  “To have maximum outreach and benefit consumers, the department is reaching out to consumers, companies, and organisations through SMS and emails. The department has the phone numbers and emails of three lakh partieswhose cases are pending before the commissions. It has done a video conferencing with the Consumer Commissions which has more than 200 pending cases,” the ministry said. It is creating a separate link and circulating it amongst all stakeholders wherein they can enter their pending case number andcommission where the case is pending and easily refer the matter to Lok Adalat.
  According to official data, amaximum of nearly 1. 7 lakh cases are related to insurance companies and 71,379 complaints are pending against banks. The total number of complaints related to the electricity sector is around 34,000.
-[[Category:India|C CONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIA
+=Consumer Forums’ powers=
 CONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIA]]
-[[Category:Law,Constitution,Judiciary|C CONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIA
+[[Category:Law,Constitution,Judiciary|C CONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIA
 CONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIA]]
-[[Category:Pages with broken file links|CONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIA
+[[Category:Pages with broken file links|CONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIA
 CONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIA]]

@@ Line 791: / Line 791: @@
  On August 29, the consumer court ordered ITC to not only pay Rs 1 lakh to Dillibabu as compensation for adopting unfair trade practices, but also discontinue sales of the particular batch of biscuits.
-[[Category:India|C CONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIA
+=Superior Court’s decisions=
 CONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIA]]
-[[Category:Law,Constitution,Judiciary|C CONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIA
+[[Category:Law,Constitution,Judiciary|C CONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIA
 CONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIA]]
-[[Category:Pages with broken file links|CONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIA
+[[Category:Pages with broken file links|CONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIA
 CONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIA]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 18:56, 20 November 2023
Line 753:		Line 753:

	State consumer disputes redressal forum has directed Westside in Elante mall to provide free carry bags to customers and pay Rs 3,000 to a complainant. The authorities of Westside were also told to refund Rs 10, which it had charged for a paper carry bag from a customer. In her plea, the complainant had stated that she had purchased garments from Westside was shocked to see that the shop had charged Rs 10 for a bag. TNN		State consumer disputes redressal forum has directed Westside in Elante mall to provide free carry bags to customers and pay Rs 3,000 to a complainant. The authorities of Westside were also told to refund Rs 10, which it had charged for a paper carry bag from a customer. In her plea, the complainant had stated that she had purchased garments from Westside was shocked to see that the shop had charged Rs 10 for a bag. TNN
		+
		+	===2021- 23: verdicts of consumer courts===
		+	[[File: 2021- 23- verdicts of consumer courts.jpg\|2021- 23: verdicts of consumer courts <br/> From: [https://epaper.indiatimes.com/article-share?article=25_10_2023_005_006_cap_TOI Vineet Upadhyay, Oct 25, 2023: ''The Times of India'']\|frame\|500px]]
		+
		+	'''See graphic''':
		+
		+	'' 2021- 23: verdicts of consumer courts ''
		+
		+	[[Category:India\|C CONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIA
		+	CONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIA]]
		+	[[Category:Law,Constitution,Judiciary\|C CONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIA
		+	CONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIA]]
		+	[[Category:Pages with broken file links\|CONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIA
		+	CONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIA]]

	=Shortfall in quantity=		=Shortfall in quantity=

@@ Line 245: / Line 245: @@
 The Act says that “service” means service of any description which is made available to potential users and includes, but not limited to, the provision of facilities in connection with banking, financing, insurance, transport, supply of electrical or other energy, telecom, or the purveying of news or other information.
 [[Category:India|C CONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIA
@@ Line 252: / Line 266: @@
 [[Category:Law,Constitution,Judiciary|C CONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIA
 CONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIA]]
-[[Category:Pages with broken file links|CONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIA]]
+[[Category:Pages with broken file links|CONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIACONSUMER PROTECTION: INDIA
 =Medical negligence =