Taken for a ride?
When I entered the office, half of the office was empty. I stood in a state of hesitation. I was not sure if I was a bit earlier. I looked at the watch hanging on the wall. It was showing 11.30. I know the office opens at 10 in the morning.
“What do you want?”
I turned around and found a person looking at me questioningly.
“I want a document pertaining to my house tax. Who is the dealing gentleman please?”
“Oh, Ramesh is dealing with the house taxes, but he’s on leave, come after 10 days.”Saying this, he left. I felt as if a pot full of cold water was thrown on my face. In the mean time, I have marked another person entering the office. Rushing towards him, I asked, “ Can you please tell me where can I get the concerned officer dealing with the House taxes’?
“Srinivas?, he left just a moment ago.”
This is a scenario everyone of us encounter quite often. We feel helpless and dejected. And many of us lead lives in that helpless and dejected condition all throgh their lives. They do not know that there is a way out for such bureaucratic evils. Many people are not aware of their rights and powers. Leave alone exercising them.
Yes, people are empowered to question the lapses in any administrative set up. There is a law that empowers and protects the consumers from the day to day vexing hardships and inconveniences. .
From Dawn to dusk
The process of buying the goods and availing the services has become a way of life for all of us. It has become imminent, right from the moment we get up from the bed, till we retire for sleep, we use several kinds of things. Even during sleep, the process of using some things will not cease.
Our day starts with brushing the teeth. For this we use a toothbrush, toothpaste, tongue cleaner and a soap, not to say about water.
To heat the water we need a Geyser or a heater. The post bath requirements are a towel, a hair oil, a comb to groom hair. Men need a shaving cream, blade, aftershave cream or lotion. And the list goes on.
If these are the things we use within 15 or 20 minutes of starting of the day, anyone can imagine the number of goods we use in a day.
It’s the same story with respect to the services we use like electricity, telephone, postal needs, transport services to commute, banking services and innumerable services from public limited organizations, so on and so forth.
Irrespective of caste and creed and social status, we have to buy so many things and avail so many services in our day to day lives.
Thus, a person, who use the things and avail the services are known as, ‘Consumer.’
Problems faced by the Consumer.
Ever increasing population, dwindling resources and human values are a few reasons among many, a consumer is facing today. Getting full value for his money has become a distant dream to the present day consumer owing to adulterated food, faulty weights and measures, Black marketing, unholy trade practices, misleading advertisements. Consumers are suffocating to the point of death. Lower and middle class people and those who are below the poverty line are the worst sufferers. Most of them are leading a ‘hand to mouth’ life. Amidst these dreary conditions, the consumer had no option but to remain as a helpless spectator.
A silver lining.
At this juncture of hopelessness, , the promulgation of ‘Consumer Protection act’, in the year 1986, to his utter relief the consumer heaved a sigh of relief. The Consumer Protection act, which arrived in 1982 clearly said, it’s the right of the consumer to get his money’s worth.
The pioneer of consumer Protection act is Ralph Nader. A lawyer by profession, Ralph Nader is considered as the Father of Consumer Protection Movement.
A brief history of Consumer Movement.
There are historical evidences in Indian history confirming the fact that there were heavy punishments for fraudulent business practices. Kings of that era penalized the offenders. One can see about such punishments in ‘Manu Dharma Sastra' also.
In the modern age, the consumer movement was started in America in the year 1920. Over the years, this movement spread to Australia, England, Denmark, Norway and many European countries.
World Consumer Rights Day.
J.F. Kennedy, proposed four Consumer rights initially on March 15, 1962. Subsequently, they were increased to eight rights.
India officially declared March 15 as the “ Consumers Day” in the year 1989.
Consumer Protection Act in India.
Before going in to the details of Consumer Protection Act, it’s not out of context to recollect Ralph Nader’s famous saying about the, ‘Thinking active citizenry.’
“There can be no daily democracy without daily citizenship. If we do not exercise our civic rights, who will? If we do not perform our civic duties, who can? The fibre of a just society in pursuit of happiness is a thinking active citizenry.”
Who is a Consumer?
Whether one pays or not, all those who buy goods and avail services are Consumers. This way all people in the world are consumers.
But, according to the, Consumer Protection Act, only those who buy goods and avail services paying money or, those persons, with the permission of the person, who paid for the goods and the services and availing the goods and services are also considered as the Consumers.
If a person gets the goods and services free of cost and intends to sell or use the goods for business, the Consumer Protection Act is not applicable. It means those consumers who buy goods to do business like distributors and suppliers are not consumers. A doctor, who buys an Ultra sound scanner for his nursing home, cannot be treated as a consumer according to Consumer protection act.
Courts.
With an intention to solve the problems of the consumers, the government created consumer courts at District, State and national levels.
The district level consumer court is known as, ’Consumer dispute redressal forum. The consumer court in the state level is known as, Consumer dispute redressal commission. The consumer court in the national level is known as, National consumer disputes redressal commission.
If the value of the compensation of Goods and services is 5 lakh rupees or less, the demanding consumer can lodge a complaint in the district forum.
If the value of the compensation of Goods and services is between 5 lakh rupees and 20 lakh rupees, the demanding consumer can lodge a complaint in the state forum.
If the value of the compensation of Goods and services is more than 20 lakh rupees, the demanding consumer can lodge a complaint in the national forum.
A consumer need not pay any fee to lodge a complaint in any Consumer court. All consumer courts namely, national, state and district level courts should settle the case within 3 months after it receives the notice from the trader or the service provider on whom, the consumer lodged the complaint for compensation.
Rights of the consumer.
- Right to have Basic amenities like food, clothing, shelter, health and education.
- Right to have security of health, property and protection from hazardous materials.
- Right to have protection from misleading advertisements, misleading labels and right to have actual and real information pertaining to the goods.
- Right to select quality of goods.
- Right to represent the consumers in the implementation of governmental and business policies.
- Right to demand compensation for the spurious and goods without quality.
- Right to have the relevant knowledge to become a responsible and wise consumer.
- Right to have a healthy environment. For a healthy life.
Powers of the consumer forum.
Consumer forums are empowered to give the verdicts in any one of the following ways:
- To rectify the defect in the goods.
- To replace the defective goods.
- To return back the amount paid by the consumer.
- To pay a suitable compensation to the consumer for the negligence of the trader.
- To remove the deficiencies in the services.
- To stop and not to repeat the restricted trade practices.
- To stop selling hazardous goods.
Abuse of the consumer forums.
Seeing the Consumer forums’ inexpensive and quick disposal of the consumer grievances, unscrupulous people look for an opportunity to abuse the consumer forums with their illogical and irrelevant claims. Earlier, consumer forums did not levy any penalties on the complaining fraudulent consumers. As abusing of the forums became rampant, the consumer protection act has been amended in 1993. According to the amendment, the fraudulent consumers are required to pay a compensation of up to Rs. 10000 to the trader/ service provider on whom, the charges are leveled.
The same penalization can be applied to those consumers who file a complaint in the forums with improper and inadequate proofs.
The responsibility of proving rests with the consumer .In the absence of a strong proof, the consumer will not get any compensation. From the consumer forum courts.
Consumer Protection movement has come of age in India now, though it came to India late. Consumer awakening is the sign of awareness in the people with respect to their rights.
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