NEW DELHI: Flagging slow disposal in consumer forums, Supreme Court on Thursday said the consumer dispute redressal commissions cannot be the place for rehabilitation of retired judges and bureaucrats and said a detailed pan-India performance evaluation exercise of these quasi-judicial bodies is urgently needed.In a case relating to pay and allowances of members of consumer forums across the country of which the court had taken suo motu cognisance five years ago, a bench of CJI Surya Kant, and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana said it came across a disturbing news report narrating the plight of consumers who are denied a hearing for four years. “If this is the way the consumer forums function, what benefit is it for the consumers who are mandated to approach the specialized quasi-judicial body? The members of consumer forums are asking for more and more facilities and perks. Vacancies and infrastructure in these forums remain a cause for concern. But are the forums justifying their salaries, perks and facilities? The purpose of constituting these commissions appears to have been frustrated,” the CJI said.Referring to the news item, SC said these issues have highlighted the poor disposal rate of consumer commissions including the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC).Advocate Priyadarshi told SC that vacancy position, infrastructure and pay and allowances of members of consumer forums should be heard together. “We request the president of NCDRC to send a report with respect to — total pendency of cases, total composition of the commission (vacancies), average rate of disposal, estimated time to decide pending matters and the need for increasing the strength of the commission,” it said and sought report within two weeks.
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It also sought details from the states about the pendency and disposal rate of state and district commissions. More than 5.7 lakh cases are pending in the three-tier consumer dispute redressal commissions, of which the district forums account for more than 4 lakh cases and state forums another 1.2 lakh cases.SC also asked additional solicitor general Aishwarya Bhati to inquire from Union govt the feasibility of creating benches of NCDRC in four regions to prevent poor consumers from travelling to Delhi for grievance redressal.
