Last month, while addressing a conference of those who administer consumer justice in the country, the Union finance minister P. Chidambaram underscored the need for promoting class action suits as an effective method of correcting systemic faults.

Saying that class action was a far more powerful weapon than public interest litigation, and could set right many consumer grievances, Chidambaram said whenever a complaint that came up before the courts pointed to a systemic fault, the presidents of the consumer courts should encourage consumers to come together and file a class action suit instead of a complaint that redressed only an individual grievance.

One hopes that the consumer courts will take this suggestion seriously. In fact, this reminds me of the case of M.J. Tirmazi, who died young as a result of a fall from his brand new, but defective scooter. Even after the scooter was tested at a laboratory and its axle was found to be defective, the manufacturer was trying to avoid his liability by claiming that it was not a manufacturing fault. In response to this, the Gujarat State Commission had reminded the manufacturer that the Commission itself had adjudicated over two more similar cases earlier pertaining to the same brand of vehicle. (Jalaluddin Yusuflali, case no. 259 of 1991, decided in 1994).

Now this could well mean that there was something very seriously wrong with the vehicle and if that was so, every effort should have been made to prevent similar accidents by asking the manufacturer to test, through an independent agency, the road worthiness and safety of the vehicle and withdraw the entire batch of defective vehicles and refund the cost of the vehicle and give compensation if any, to the consumer.

If only the president had shown more interest, they could well have converted this into a major class action suit, which, in one go, would have given relief to all those who had bought the defective vehicle. It would have also sent out a clear message to other manufacturers that consumer courts will not condone any laxity in safety.

Similarly, some years ago, when hundreds of consumers in Delhi suffered the deleterious effects of epidemic dropsy, caused on account of adulteration of mustard oil with argemone oil, the courts should have encouraged individuals who filed complaints seeking compensation, to file class action suits. Hopefully, at least now, the consumer courts will encourage and even suggest, where necessary, such class action suits to benefit a large number of consumers.