•  
  •  
 

Abstract

Modern markets and technological developments have largely contributed to the betterment of consumers with ease of access to quality and safe goods and services. But, the fact of life is that consumers are still victims of unscrupulous and exploitative trade practices. While consumer fora are there for effective redressal, the fora are burdened with heavy backlog of cases and poor administration that the consumer has to wait for years to get the relief. This is proved by the verdict of the Supreme Court very recently wherein it constituted1 a Committee to examine the working of consumer fora in India. The finding of the committee2 pointed towards a dismal picture and show how the redressal system at the District, State and National level has been losing sheen over the years. In its report, the committee observed that the fora constituted under the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 do not function as effectively as expected due to a poor organisational set-up, grossly inadequate infrastructure, absence of adequate and trained manpower and lack of qualified members in the adjudicating bodies. The committee had also pointed to red-tapeism and corruption in the system that is leading to increasing inefficiency in the timely disposal of cases. Thus, a tool that was meant to empower the consumers against any kind of exploitation to this date remains toothless. Also, as per the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) statistics3 , there are 4,19,894 cases pending across national, state and district fora out of which 3,00,087 cases are pending in district fora alone. In the light of this data and issues by the dispute settlement mechanism, this paper presents the various advantages and solutions rendered by alternate dispute mechanisms in the interface of consumer law. This paper looks into the need of consumer organisations in terms of creating awareness about various alternate dispute mechanisms that consumers can avail of and the benefits it can yield and why they are necessary in the present context.

Download

Share

COinS