Consumer Commission should be Consumer-friendly by Nitin Saxena

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New Delhi: The consumer courts are established with the aim that they would provide relief to the consumers in case they have been sold faulty products or deficiency in services as per the C.P Act 1986 issue will be resolved within 90 days from the date of filing/admission of the case. However, the number of consumers who reach these forums are still very less in numbers because of many reasons like less awareness about consumer courts, the procedure of filing a case in these courts,there are many commissions in the country where it has been noticed that the presiding officer of the commission are not consumer friendly instead to help the consumers the presiding officers of the commission force the consumer to engage advocate, poor infrastructure, long delays in getting relief from the Consumer Forums / Commission. 

Nitin Saxena

To help out cheated consumers in getting justice from the companies, an NGO called All India Consumer Education Society Regd ( A.I.C.E.S ) which was established at Gwalior in 1995 headed by an author who is a consumer activist for its outstanding work on Consumer Law various State Government has given best N G O award and Government of India has given National Youth Swami Vivekanand Award, The author is working day and night and awakening consumer through his regular column in National and Regional dailies in print and electronic media, whose sole aim is to help and guide grieved consumers to handle their complaints in the consumer court, the A.I.C.E.S is doing it at almost free of cost for the below the poverty line consumers, widows and old age peoples, the society is not taking any grant from any Govt / public sector and private sector. Ministry of Consumer Affairs Government of India has set up National Consumer Helpline ( N.C.H ) that is useless and is not effective, information received under RTI Act 2005, funds worth crores released to Voice Society, Voice, CCC and N.C.H which were misused by the said organisations being run by the same bunch of people who are in connivance with government corrupt officials, moreover even Audit was done, on the complaint of A.I.C.E.S, the accounts were audited and several irregularities were found in the accounts as per RTI report, it also came to know that Rs 50 Lacs was disbursed to Voice without signing the M.O.U as per the information received under R.T.I Act. A shocking picture also came to light after knowing that this organisation was getting grants from other Ministries as well namely the Ministry Of Corporate Affairs, Ministry of Social Justice, Ministry of Health etc and the list goes on for the same paperwork only. Surprisingly, without organising or doing any work in the interest of consumers, the said Organisation has been taking grants from the MOCA without even organising Consumer Clubs in Schools. The AICES team visited a number of schools in Delhi and found that NGO (VOICE) has submitted bogus bills in the MOCA for organising Consumer Clubs in Delhi Schools because the School Principal says they are not aware of the schemes. These organisations had been receiving grants for over a decade now and pretending as if they are being run for Consumer awareness. The survey revealed the activities by the said organisations was only on paper, the information received under RTI Act also clarifies that the crores of funds were released and not even an internal audit was ever conducted by MOCA and moreover a huge amount of funds were released without even signing of M.O.U.

A.I.C.E.S also requests M.O.C.A and Prime Minister of India with greater emphasis that instead of giving a grant to N.G.O’s it is better to improve the infrastructure of District Forums, State Commissions and National Commission across the country because the consumer is not getting justice in time due to poor infrastructure. Ironically these Commissions are working just like Civil Courts and cases are pending/piling up for years though as per Act, the judgement should be delivered within 90 days as per the C.P.Act 1986 cases in the commissionsdrag on for years and this is state of affairs in almost in all the Commissions across the country. The President of the District / State Commission also feels hapless because of poor infrastructure, shortage of staff and other necessary items like stationery, computers, fans etc. North India based All India Consumer Education Society has won a number of Consumer cases, recently. AICES won one more case against Imperia Structure Ltd and added one more feather on its cap by defeating North India real estate developer imperia Structure Ltd in the matter of its member Vipin Bihari & Dhruv Bansal in C C 692/2018 from NCDRC court. On dated 22nd November bench number -3 headed Hon’ble. Justice Deepa Sharma and Hon’ble. Member Subhash Chandra pronounced the order and directed imperia Structure. Ltd to refund the full amount of the booked flat at its project which was launched at Sector 37-C Gurgaon in the name of Esfera in the year 2010 and directed to pay 9 per cent from the date of booking and pay 50,000/ litigation cost within 4 weeks if fails to pay in time the interest will be calculated @ 12 percent The case was argued by the author. Complainants Vipin Bihari and his son Dhruv Bansal booked a two-bedroom flat for self-use in the year 2012 and paid Rs 65 lacs to imperia Structure Ltd. According to BBA builder fails to complete the project till date. The complainants approach President AICES for justice in the year 2018. President AICES assured the complainants, the organisation will take care of their hard-earned money and promise that they will get soon justice from the clutches of dishonest builder. AICES has won a number of cases against Imperia Structure Ltd and many consumers got relief.

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