Er Vikram Gour
15th March every year is celebrated as World Consumers Rights Day to commemorate the historic declaration by Mr. Kennedy, the President of USA of four basic human rights i.e. right of choice, right of information, right of safety, and right to be heard. Later in 1985 the U N General assembly issued world wide some guide-lines for the consumer protection to its member countries in achieving and maintaining adequate protection for their population as consumers.
As a follow up of the UN General Assembly initiative the Government of India promulgated the Consumer Protection Act in 1986 enshrining the rights of the consumer against the defects in goods and deficiency in services both by the private as well as public sector agencies. The Act provided protection from unethical conduct of producers, distributors and service providers. To prevent exploitation of the consumers from the unethical producers, distributors and service providers, instead of long and costly litigation the Act provides for a mechanism of speedy, time bound and cheap legal remedy at three levels i.e. district level, divisional level and state/national level Consumer Grievance Redressal agencies.. This was the beginning of Consumer movement in India.
A year later the Jammu and Kashmir Govt. enacted the J&K Consumer Protection Act in 1987. With all other similar provisions in the Act the state did not provide for the district level redressal and instead provided for Divisional level fora one in Jammu and the other in Srinagar. Later the Govt. also constituted a State Consumer Protection Council under chapter II, section 4 of the Act with objects (sec. 6) to promote and protect the rights of the consumers. Later the State Govt. came up with a new Ministry of Consumer Welfare and Public Distribution System. This was done to give impetus to protection of rights of the consumers. Although, a separate ministry was formed by giving a new name to the existing ministry of Civil Supplies and Public Distribution yet till date no new rules have been framed to give powers to the Directorate of CAPD, neither any additional staff has been added to allow the new deptt to work effectively for the consumer welfare.
The celebration of the World Consumer Day calls for reflection on the successes and achievements in the field of consumer protection, consumer welfare, Consumer awareness and above all the consumer level of satisfaction during all these years.The foremost task before the Govt. and the consumer groups appears to be a thrust in the field of information and awareness among the consumers
The Consumer groups and the connected Govt. agencies must aim at creating awareness among the consumers of their rights as provided under the various Consumer Acts. At present the thrust is at the urban population which forms only about 25 to 30% of total population of the country. Not much is being done towards educating the rural population which forms almost 70% of the total population. For this, village oriented NGOs may be encouraged and the existing cooperatives may be involved in the gigantic task of literacy, education leading to consumer awareness.
The consumer awareness should be made part of the school education to make it a movement and the children should be educated about their rights to medical care, information, basic civic amenities, healthy and clean environment and seek protection under the various laws of the land.
Consume problems with the trade and commerce sector mainly arise from supply of defective, substandard, fake goods and their manipulated exploitive pricing. The markets today are flooded with branded/unbranded items of daily household use from local manufacturers as well as from multinational franchisee. While only some educated, alert and discerning consumers take on the unscrupulous traders/manufacturers the general public gets cheated. The NGOs have to play a very important role to act as watchdog and guide for the consumers.
The protection of consumer interest against the sub standard, fake, adulterated and unhealthy consumables calls for modern technology equipped laboratories and competent technical personnel. Because it is only after the fakes are tested in these laboratories can the discion be taken to penalize the defaulters? The concerned Govt. should, therefore, facilitate the setting up of such laboratories.
The services provided by the public utility services like Municipal Corporation, water supply, electricity, medical services including private sector, telephones, civic amenities etc are the areas of serious concern of the consumers. These agencies are perhaps the largest respondents in the Consumer Dispute Rederessal Foras. To inculcate and ensure consumer friendly functioning of these agencies and to infuse sense of accountability and responsiveness towards the peoples problems stringent administrative actions including recovery of any financial penalty against the officials responsible for the deficient service is called for.
In the above context it will be most desirable if the public sector and the Government agencies responsible for public service draw and publicize ‘Public Charter’ pertaining to their functions.
At the Government level, there is need to introduce transparency and rationale in pricing of essential items, setting up technically competent pricing mechanism. The concept of marking MRP was introduced by the government with a view to safe guard the interest of the consumer and to give them fair idea about the genuine and reasonable price of the goods while purchasing. But it has been seen that printing of MRP has been grossly misused by the manufacturer and retailers against the consumer. An item with MRP Rs.100/- can be easily be purchased in Rs.80/-0 or even less. There being no official mechanism in vogue for fixation of the prices on the basis of the cost of raw material used, the cost of manufacture and the profit therein, the manufacturer is at liberty to print any price and leave it to the retailer to charge anything from the consumer. The added problem these days is that the manufacturer is forcing on the consumer items which the consumer has no intention to purchase but he is forced to within the price marked as MRP, viz a Coca Cola bottle with a chocolate, or a toothpaste with a soap etc. In fact the MRP marked contains the price of the additional item as well but the consumer is made to feel as if the item is being offered as a free gift. This, infact, is a serious matter that encroaches upon the consumer rights of freedom of choice and purchase.
Even after the formation of exclusive Ministries of Consumer Affairs both at the Central and state level such an essential step of formation of Pricing Committees for rationalizing the price structure of the manufactured goods and their MRP has not been taken. And the consumer is being fleeced day in and day out.
Consumers’ Grievances Redressal fora created under the CPA have quasi-judicial functions in dispensing justice to the aggrieved party. Members appointed on these fora are expected to protect the interest of the consumer within the ambit of the judicial procedure laid down in the CPA. It is recognized that functional approach of judgment by the members of the fora do not have to follow the pattern of the ordinary civil court but on the contrary have to have the content of humane and social justice. It is also expected that these consumer courts dispense justice within the stipulated time frame and give due protection to the complainant against usual harassment and physical and monitory inconvenience by way of adjournments sought by the opposing party. The redressal agencies must command respect and credibility and infuse confidence in the society to be effective. To this end the government must ensure that the appointments of the members on the fora are above board. In this context like the central Act the J&K Act needs to codify the qualifications of the non-judicial members.
The celebrations of the World Consumer Day will be meaningful if the consumer Protection Act is not only implemented effectively in its true Spirit but also periodically reviewed and amended to accommodate the developing situation and experience.
(The author President Consumer Welfare Association)
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