World Consumer Rights Day

CONSUMER RIGHTS ; A LOT REMAINS TO BE DONE

Some time ago, one of my neighbour-cum-childhood friend turned distant relative found him landed in a peculiar situation. One of the three strips of tablet he bought for his wife from a very reputed pharma shop at Port Blair turned out to be empty. The matter was brought to the knowledge of the pharma shop which acknowledged the defect, but declined to accede to his request for replacement or refund.

Remedy offered by the pharma shop

Blaming the manufacturer, the shopkeeper opined the defective strip would be sent to the company (at mainland) and if company sends a replacement, it would be passed on to the customer. When the need to follow the dose and time schedule as prescribed by doctor was raised, the shopkeeper insisted new set of tablets be purchased against fresh payment.

Point to Ponder

The consumer being born and brought up in these islands was aware waiting for the mainland based company to respond would result in loss of time besides causing undesirable halt in treatment in-between. Further since restoration of health and well being was paramount, he ruled out the option to wait and purchased the tablets needed to complete the dose by making fresh payment. Now the point is even if the company sends a replacement strip, his wife cannot consume them over and above the prescribed dose. Therefore the choice given to the customer by the pharmaceutical retailer turned out to be a No Choice.

Peeved by the unbecoming attitude of the pharma shop, the consumer approached the Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum (District Forum at Port Blair), only to be confronted by a problem of another kind.

The Forum prevented the authorized person from appearing before it

The consumer being a woman, a mother having a 3 year old girl child, engaged in a profession wherein she has to attend shift duty and residing at a rural location, coming out of which requires connected travelling by foot, boat journey followed by bus journey, that she authorized a person of her choice to represent her before the forum. The forum threw in a surprise saying the authorized person being a non-advocate cannot appear before the forum. The forum insisted presence of the applicant “in person” or through “an advocate” and listed the matter for further hearing.

Supreme Court ruling on the matter

While disposing the Civil Appeal No 868 of 2003 with Civil Appeal Nos 869-870 of 2003 emanating from the judgments delivered by Bombay High Court in WP No 1147 and 1425 of 2002, Justice Dalveer Bhandari said “When the legislature has permitted authorized agents to appear on behalf of the complainants, the courts can’t compel the consumer to engage the services of an advocate”. This was carried under the caption “Non-Advocates can appear before Consumer Fora: Supreme Court” in leading national dailies such as The Times of India dated Sept 1, 2011 and in The Hindu on Oct 4, 2011.

Directions to the National Commission

The apex court directed National Commission to frame comprehensive rules regarding appearances of agents, representatives, registered organizations and/or non-advocates appearing before the National, State and District forum.

It also suggested while framing rules the Commission may consider non-advocates appearing without accreditation – A party may appoint a non-advocate as its representative provided that the representative –

(1)     is appearing on an individual case basis

(2)   has a pre-existing relationship with the complainant (eg as a relative, neighbour, business associate or personal friend)

(3) is not receiving any form of direct or indirect remuneration for appearing before the Forum and files a written declaration to that effect

(4)  demonstrates to the presiding officer of the Forum that he or she is competent to represent the party.

Unfortunately efforts to draw the attention of the Hon’ble District Forum (at Port Blair) towards existence of such a ruling and the fact that non-advocates are allowed in various forums elsewhere in the country failed to cut the ice. Consequently the applicant, her husband and the authorized agent had to return to their destinations with a story to tell.

It is worth mentioning general public having a very vague idea of court procedures often view judicial process as a complicated, long drawn wrangle with a highly unpredictable outcome. Hence avoids approaching the court unless and until the reasons are too compelling. Thus the system put in place to provide relief to the aggrieved remains out of reach of the aggrieved defeating the purpose of having such a system.

World Consumer Rights Day

Various consumer organizations including consumer fora would celebrate the day (on March 15) by conducting programs to make the consumer aware of its rights and the remedies available under Consumer Protection Act. The onus of success therefore is on Quasi judicial bodies such as the Consumer Fora, constituted to give relief to consumers. It could contribute to the cause  immensely by cutting down on technicalities, making procedures simple and friendly. This would certainly bring in a positive change in public perception towards the system. The opportunity is rife.

This post was carried in The Echo of India dated March 15, 2013