Jurisdiction of Consumer Courts: The Centre on notified in December 2021 monetary jurisdiction of consumer commissions.
- District commissions having jurisdiction to entertain complaints where value of goods or services paid as consideration does not exceed Rs 50 lakh.
- The state commissions will have jurisdiction to similar complaints with value of goods or services between Rs 50 lakh and Rs 2 crore, and
- The National Commission over Rs 2 crore.
Three tier: The Consumer Act provides a “three-tier quasi-judicial mechanism” for redress of consumer disputes: district commissions, state commissions, and the national commission.
Existing jurisdiction: The law also provides pecuniary jurisdiction of each tier of consumer commission. As per existing provisions, district commissions have jurisdiction to entertain complaints where value of goods or services paid as consideration does not exceed Rs 1 crore, state commissions Rs 1 crore to Rs 10 crore, and national commission above Rs 10 crore.
Reason for reducing pecuniary jurisdiction: After the Act came into force, it was observed that existing provisions relating to pecuniary jurisdiction of consumer commissions were leading to cases which could earlier be filed in National Commission to be filed in State Commissions and cases which could earlier be filed in State Commissions to be filed in District Commissions. This caused a significant increase in workload of District Commissions, leading to rise in pendency and delay in disposal of cases, defeating the very object of securing speedy redressal to consumers as envisaged under the Act.
The ministry statement as quoted in various newspaper said, “With regard to revision of pecuniary jurisdiction, Central Government held consultation with States/UTs, consumer organizations, law chairs etc. and examined the issues that had created long pendency of cases in detail.Under the law, every complaint is to be disposed of “as expeditiously as possible”, and attempt is to be made to decide the complaint within a period of three months from the date of receipt of notice by the “opposite party”, where the complaint does not require analysis or testing of commodities and within 5 months if it requires analysis or testing of commodities.
E-filing: The Act also provides consumers the option of filing complaint electronically… Presently, facility of E-Daakhil is available in 544 consumer commissions, which includes the National Commission and consumer commissions in 21 states and 3 UTs.
