Plea in SC for filling up vacancies in State, District Consumer Commissions
Dec 29, 2020
New Delhi [India], December 29 : A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court on Tuesday seeking direction to authorities to fill vacant posts of president, members and staff in District Consumer Dispute Redressal Commissions (DCDRC) and State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commissions (SCDRC) across the country.
The petition filed by law student Saloni Gautam sought direction to the govermment to provide proper infrastructure and staff to the Consumer Commissions as soon as possible and file a detailed report regarding the same before the court.
The plea said as per status mentioned in Delhi State Disputes Redressal Commission website as on November 21, 2020 there are two posts vacant in the State Commission, Delhi.
There are two more members required to be appointed in the State Commission at Chandigarh. Various post of president and members are vacant in Maharashtra. As per the information received from sources, in Assam the president and members of the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forums of Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Nagaon, Guwahati and Kokrajhar had been lying vacant for a long time, the petition stated.
The plea submits that various High Courts in India have ordered the state governments to appoint president and members in District and State Commission, but no action has been taken till date. It stated that on June 16, 2020, the Allahabad High Court had asked why appointments of members in the District Consumer Forum were not made in time and as to what is the status of the appointments.
It claimed that more than 16 posts of president and 25 posts of members are lying vacant in the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forums across Punjab.
"It is also pertinent to note that these vacancies are not only limited to the above-mentioned states of India but this situation exists in almost all the states of India, which is evident from one of the media reports about the condition of District Consumer Commissions at Orissa, as 18 posts each of president and members are lying vacant in 18 DCDRCs," the plea added.
It stated that on July 20, 2020 the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 came into force and the Act also changed the pecuniary jurisdiction for the District, State and National Commissions, respectively.
The pecuniary limit for the District Commission has been increased to up to Rs 1 crore from up to Rs 20 lakhs and for State Commission it has been increased to up to Rs 10 crores from up to Rs 1 crore and for National Commission, the pecuniary jurisdiction has been increased to over and above Rs 10 crores as against Rs 1 crore in the 1986 Act.
The Act came into force and the pecuniary jurisdictions of the Consumer Commissions have changed or increased, but the governments have not made any arrangement in filing the post of presidents and members in these commissions, plea added.
