It is the duty of a State to provide every rightful consumer with assured protection from any unlawful business or unfair trade practice taking place within the territory of the concerned country.
India being an overly populated country with a considerably large number of people bearing tremendously poor knowledge regarding Consumer Rights and Protection is obviously an easy target for brutally business-minded people who actively or silently promote and support unfair trade practices in India, suppressing the rights of their consumers.
Due to unethical nature of business and lack of professionalism and responsibilities towards the consumers, these money-minded manufacturers and traders drastically cut down the genuineness and quality of their commodities and sell those out at high price in the market and as the inevitable consequence of such odious act, innocent consumers purchase those low quality, substandard products out of need and suffer.
What is Consumer Protection Act?
The Consumer Protection Act, 1986 (Amended in the year 2019) was introduced in the Lok Sabha on 8 July 2019 by the Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Ram Vilas Paswan. This momentous Bill was passed by Lok Sabha on 30 July 2019 and later passed in Rajya Sabha on 6 August 2019.
The Government of India introduced the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 with a goal to provide protection of the interests of consumers against unfair trade practices in India and to establish authorities for timely and effective administration and settlement of consumers’ disputes in India.
What purpose does the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 serve?
The Consumer Protection Act, 2019 was solely enacted with an aim to safeguard the interests of the consumers in India against unlawful business activities and unfair trade practices and serve speedy resolution to the consumer disputes within the territory of India.
This dynamic Act recognizes the rights of every consumer in our country and aims at protecting and securing the same by enacting penalties and regulations to control the vast spreading web of unlawful business affairs in India.
Who is a Consumer?
Any person who has purchased or hired any commodity or service from any store/institution/organization/service provider/seller and paid an amount of consideration be it partially or fully, for the purpose of his or her own use and not for resale, is known as a consumer.
Under the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, anyone who is a lawful consumer of a responsible concern/organization/institution/firm can file a Consumer Complaint Online/Offline in the District Consumer Forum for the purpose of claiming justice upon satisfying the following conditions:-
- You must be a lawful consumer of the concerned seller/service provider;
- There must be some deficiency in service on part of the respondent.
The Act establishes three different Consumer Courts to serve justice according to the differences in disputed amount:
Section 11 of the Act confers the power to promote redressal on The District Consumer Forum for cases amounting disputed amount up to Rs.20lakhs.
Section 17 of the Act confers the power to promote redressal on The State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission for cases ranging from Rs.20Lakhs to 1 Crore.
Section 21 of the Act states that cases exceeding disputed amount of Rs.1crore shall be redressed by The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission.
Rights of a Consumer as recognized under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019:
The definition of Consumer Right is the ‘right to have information about different aspects of a good or service such as its quality, quantity, potency, purity, price and standard.’
Rights of Consumers as per the Provisions of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 are:
- Right to be protected against marketing of goods and services that are hazardous to life and property;
- Right to be informed about the quality, quantity, standard, and price of goods or services so as to protect the consumer against unfair trade practices;
- Right to receive assured access, wherever possible, to a variety of goods and services at competitive prices;
- Right to be heard and to be assured that consumers interests will receive due consideration at appropriate forums;
- Right to seek redressal against unfair trade practices;
- Right to consumer education.
Reasons to file consumer complaints:-
- Unfair trade practices
- Food adulteration
- Misleading information
- Deficiency in service
- Delivery of damaged/defective items
- Delay in delivery/ non-delivery of purchased items
- Non-initiation of return/refund against refundable items
Efficacy of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 in delivering Redressal:
In maximum cases the verdict is given on favor of the consumers only.
In most of the cases the Court also gives direction to the respondent party to pay a handsome amount of compensation for causing harassment to the consumer which also includes the legal expenditures bore by the consumer.
How to file A Consumer Complaint in India?
Procedure to file a Consumer Complaint Offline:-
It is not required for a consumer to hire an advocate to appear in court in order to file a Consumer Complaint. Even a layman can Register a Consumer complaint through the following steps:-
Step 1: Send a legal intimation to the concerned respondent highlighting the issue in dispute claiming your desired relief;
Step 2: Wait for 15(fifteen) days from the date of receiving the legal notice by the concerned party for their response to your intimation as per the statute of the said Act;
Step 3: Within 15(fifteen) days if you don’t receive a positive reply from the concerned respondent, you may file a petition in court and approach appropriate Consumer Court/Forum claiming justice.
Procedure to register a Consumer Complaint Online:-
In the modern era of advanced technology it is no doubt smarter to file Consumer Complaint Online instead of filing it Offline as offline procedures are mostly time and energy consuming wherein filing consumer complaint Online cuts down the burden of responsibility from your shoulder as everything will be taken care of Online by legal experts and it provides you with quality solution. For complete guide Read Here
If you want to file a Consumer Complaint and looking for quick and quality redressal then you are in the right place.
Our website has already dealt with more than 5,000 consumer dispute cases till day.
We are proud to inform you that in 96% of these cases our clients got necessary redressal along with a good amount of compensation.
Here your entire case will be exclusively guided by our well experienced and profound legal experts throughout the process who will also take care of all the legal procedures till the end in order to provide you hassle free, quality justice.
You can easily file a Consumer Complaint online by following the below mentioned simple steps:-
Step 1: Visit the website and Click on the link to register.
Step 2: Fill the form stating your relevant details and click on Submit.
Step 3: You will receive a call from the concerned legal expert who will send a legal intimation to the respondent after analyzing your case and will do the needful on your behalf in order to provide you with necessary redressal.
