Voter ID card, PAN card, birth certificate, marriage certificate, death certificate, passport are all extremely important documents, yet those issuing them often tend to be absolutely careless while issuing them and make huge mistakes.

In voter ID cards, for example, the names are wrongly spelt, the name of the spouse or the parent is replaced with that of a stranger. It is not unusual to find similar mistakes in other important documents too. In birth certificates, babies are turned younger or older or their sex changed, at the stroke of a pen. Similarly those issuing marriage certificates are known to carelessly change the name of the bride or the groom, causing not just embarrassment to the parties, but also harassment, if they are to apply for visas on the basis of those certificates. What is most frustrating in all these cases is that the process of rectification of the mistake is extremely complicated and time consuming.

Here is a case that showcases the ordeal faced by one such victim in getting a correction made in the PAN card and the problems that he faced on account of the error. Even though he has not taken to task the person who made the mistake, but the one who delayed the correction and harassed him, it underscores the need for government to urgently look at this problem and bring about course correction.

What is equally important here is the decision of the consumer court, holding the applicant to be a “consumer”, entitled to compensation for any deficiency in the service rendered by the agency. And delay in issuing the card constitutes deficiency, the consumer court has held. This should go a long way in ensuring better service from these agencies.

This case has its origin in the mistake in the PAN card issued to the complainant, Shivaraj R. Nelivigi from Karnataka, and his repeated attempts to have it corrected. The consumer court here held that the complainant was indeed a consumer of the service (of rectification of the error) being provided by the IT PAN services unit of the National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL), for a fee of Rs 67.34. For unduly delaying the issue of the corrected card, NDSL was guilty of deficient service.

While the district forum awarded a compensation of Rs 22,000 and costs of Rs 5,000, the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission reduced the compensation to Rs 5,000 on the ground that the card had since been delivered to the complainant (RP No 2900 of 2010, decided on Jan 5, 2012).