Only 59 cases pending in district commissions and SCDRC: Arunachal
NEW DELHI, 11 Feb: In a significant order, the Supreme Court on Wednesday invoked its powers under Article 142 of the Constitution to ask certain high courts with a few pending consumer complaints and appeals in the state consumer disputes redressal bodies to take up those matters for adjudication.
Article 142 of the Constitution empowers the Supreme Court to pass any order necessary for doing “complete justice” in any cause pending before it to ensure justice.
The Consumer Protection Act establishes a three-tier quasi-judicial mechanism — district, state consumer disputes redressal commissions (SCDRC) and National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) — for speedy consumer dispute redressal.
The SCDRC handles complaints with claims between Rs. 1 crore and Rs. 10 crore, and hears appeals against district commission orders.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi heard pleas by various states with low pendency count in their state and district consumer commissions, with some of the states even alleging that their consumer courts have been non-functional for over a year.
The counsels for various states mentioned the low pendency count in their courts.
Arunachal Pradesh mentioned that only 59 cases were pending in their district commissions and the SCDRC.
Sikkim mentioned that only 51 cases were pending in their district commissions while 24 cases were pending in its state commission. They mentioned that there was no judicial member appointed in Sikkim’s consumer commission, as it functioned with only two technical members, which led to the court raising doubts on its daily operations.
Manipur and Goa were the other states that did not have a judicial member and president in their commission.
Mizoram, Nagaland, Himachal Pradesh, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Meghalaya, all had low pendency count with a fully functioning judicial panel. However, the total count of pending cases for Meghalaya goes as low as 15. Taking note of the low pendency and in a bid to save public money, the bench said that it will use its power under Article 142 of the Constitution and ask the respective high courts to take over and adjudicate the consumer complaints and appeals which were to be handled by the SCDRCs.
“Keeping such low pendency, maintaining a state consumer commission will lead to an unavoidable burden on the state exchequer,” said the court, reasoning its order to entrust the concerned high courts with the pending consumer cases. The apex court directed the chief justices of the concerned high courts to entrust a single judge of the high court with sufficient experience for the purposes of disposing of consumer complaints. The single judge will take assistance of technical members, if any, of the SCDRCs to adjudicate the consumer complaints and appeals, preferably within a period of three months.
The bench directed the respective state governments to send the files of the SCDRCs to the registrar generals of the high courts for necessary action within three weeks. It also asked the NCDRC to refer the appeals against the SCDRC cases decided by the serving high court judges to its bench presided over by a judicial member. On the issue of the district forum facing a similar problem of low pendency, the bench sought the assistance of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta for passing an order. (PTI)
