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Resource centre on India's rural distress
 
 

Consumer court benches required in rural areas too Rajeshree Nagarsekar


Even as the department of civil supplies and consumer affairs conducts consumer rights’ awareness events in rural areas periodically, lack of councils and laboratory facilities are dampening consumer activism in Goa, say consumer rights’ experts.

They point out that both district consumer courts, set up under the justice redressal system of the Consumer Protection Act (CPA), 1986 are in urban areas. This makes it difficult for rural consumers to approach the courts. Moreover, though the courts have been set up as special courts, the non-extension of their benches in rural areas has reportedly led to poor public participation.

Jagdish Prabhudessai, president of the South Goa consumer dispute redressal forum, says, “Though prevalence of consumer exploitation is rampant in rural areas, statistics of cases available with the forum indicate that only 5% of the annual 300 (average) cases are filed by villagers. Not more than six cases have been filed before the forum by people from remote villages of Canacona or Sanguem, since the forum’s inception in 1989.”

While experts believe that redressal platforms can forge consumer activism in rural areas, the government is undecided about setting up such a mechanism. “The department has been organizing consumer rights’ awareness events in all talukas. There are no plans to extend the sittings of the lok adalats to villages or to set up redressal platforms there,” said Sunil Masurkar, director, civil supplies and consumer affairs. Experts attribute the lack of participation by the rural population in consumer courts to the failure of the government to set up protection councils and the absence of laboratories to test disputed products.

“The state has still not established state consumer protection councils (SCPC) which are mandatory under the Act. These councils are also responsible for generating funds and providing infrastructure such as testing labs,” said Prabhudessai. Testing facilities of disputed products cannot be done in Goa due to the absence of forensic labs, he added. “Under the Act it is mandatory that the disputed product be sent to a government-approved lab. In the absence of such a facility here, it becomes time consuming and also discourages complainants from approaching the consumer courts,” said Prabhudessai.

Legal experts feel the need to bring about major amendments to the Act in order to include more classes of consumers. “The definition of consumers should be extended to improve or encompass more services and new categories of service providers in public and private enterprises,” said an eminent lawyer, wishing not to be named. He felt the most important amendment needed “is the extension of the sitting of the lok adalats, held under the auspices of the forum, to rural areas of the district”.

“More interim powers should be granted to the forum during the pendency of the case. Directives should also be given to each forum by national and state commissions not to allow cross examination which is time consuming and unlike in the civil and criminal court, is not suited to the summary proceedings contemplated by the Act,” he said.