In the last 25 years, over 3.7 million consumers across the country have sought resolution of their complaints through the three-tier consumer redressal agencies constituted under the Consumer Protection Act. Out of these some have won, some have lost. But a common complaint that all of them have is about the delay in the resolution of their complaints, the repeated adjournments given at the behest of the lawyers and the highly technical procedures adopted by the courts.

This path-breaking law that came into the statute books on December 24, 1986, completed 25 years recently. Yet, till today, “simple and speedy” redress promised under the law is not a reality. The law mandates that complaints be resolved within 90days, but only 25 per cent of the cases are decided within that time and 3.5 lakh cases are still pending.

If the silver jubilee celebrations have to have some meaning, then immediate steps need to be taken to bring about course correction. The adjudicating members, for example, have to comply with the law in its letter and spirit. They must keep the procedure simple, refrain from giving adjournments and become more sensitive to consumer suffering, particularly in respect of the computation of damages for loss and injury caused to consumers. Recently, the National Consumer Commission imposed punitive damages on a bank for filing appeals without any merit. There is need for more such action to discourage trade and industry from filing appeals only to delay the adjudication process.

The state governments on their part, should ensure smooth functioning of the courts by appointing adjudicating members well in time and also creating additional district forums and state commission benches wherever needed, to cope with the increasing number of complaints. This applies to the central government too because two benches of the national commission are not functioning because of the vacancy caused by the delay in the appointment of four members. Even though there are 24 vacancies in the 35 state commissions in the country, fortunately, they are all functioning. But one cannot say the same about the 629 district forums in the country. There are 297 vacancies in the post of adjudicating member in these forums because 11 of them are temporarily shut as a result.

Course correction at age 25 is not easy, but it can be achieved if all those involved in implementation of the law make that extra effort to ensure that the law truly becomes an instrument of consumer empowerment in the country.