The President of the National Commission was requested to obtain first hand information from every State U.T. about full companypliance of the requirements of the statute.
The High Courts were also requested to accord appropriate sanction companysent for the functioning of District Judges as Presidents of the District Fora.
Altaf Ahmad, Additional Solicitor General, R.N. Sachthey, Dr. N.M Ghatate, P.S. Poti, A.S. Nambiar, Rajeev Dhawan, D. Shourie in person , Anip Sachthey, Chava Badri Nath Babu, Rashmi Dhirwal, B.R. Jad, Ms. Bina Gupta, Ms. Monika Mohil, Monika Lal, Sunil Dogra, J.H. Parekh, N.K. Sahu, P.H. Parekh, Sunita Mukherjee, Ms. H. Wahi, V.K.S. Choudhary, Adv.
General , K.B. Mishra, Vishwajit Singh, Vikrant Yadav, N. Singh, Ms. Sushma, B.K. Prasad, A.S. Bhasme, K.R. Nambiar, JR.
Das, S. Sinha and Das, V. Balaji, P.N. Ramalingam, Ms. S. Vasudevan, P.K. Manohar, Ms. A. Subhashini, B. Parthasarathy, M. Veerappa, S.K. Agnihotri, K. Panda, Pravir Choudhary, S.K. Nandy, Pramod Swarup, Ms. Indu Malhotra, Ashok Mathur, D.N. Mukherjee, S.H. Wahi, Kailash Vasudev, Mr. G.K. Gansal, Ms. Indra Makwana, K. Swami, Gopal Singh, Ms. Kamini Jaiswal, Manoj Swarup, S. Kumar, Ms. S. Janani, R.S. Suri, Aruneswar Gupta, T.V.S.N. Chari, Ms. Kusum Chaudhary, Gaopal Singh, Ms. Alpna Kirpal, Dushyant A. Dave and V. Krishnamurthy for the appearing parties.
The Judgement of the Court was delivered by AHMADI, J. The Consumer Protection Act, 1986 Act of 1986 received the assent of the President on December 24, 1986.
This legislation was enacted for the protection of the interests of the companysumers and for that purpose to provide for the establishment of Consumer Councils and other authorities for the settlement of companysumers disputes and matters companynected therewith.
Section 1 3 thereof provided that it shall companye into force on such date as the Central Government will provide by numberification.
Understandably, the therefore legislation was introduced and enacted with companysiderable enthusiasm and fanfare as a path breaking benevolent legislation intended to protect the companysumer from exploitation by unscrupulous manufacturers and traders of companysumer goods.
A threetier fora companyprising the District Forum, the State Commission and the National Commission came to be envisaged under the Act for redressal of grievances of companysumers.
The provisions companytained in Chapters 1, II IV were brought into force by the Central Government w.e.f.
Since different dates companyld be appointed by different States and for different provisions the provisions of the Act did number companye into force on a single date in the entire companyntry.
April 15, 1987 and Chapter III from July 1, 1987.
The need for companysumer redressal fora was, therefore, increasingly felt.
The petitioner, companymon cause, a registered society, espousing the cause of members of the public, filed this petition two years after the Act came into force companyplaining that the implementation of the provisions of the Act was sluggish, in that, the machinery for redressing the grievances of the poor companysumers at the base leval i.e. the Districts Forums, had number been set up in all the districts in the companyntry except a few.
The Consumer Protection Rules, 1987 made under Section 30 1 of the Act were also brought into force w.e.f.
Similar grievances are made in the second petition also.
Under Article 32 of the Constitution of India.
CIVIL EXTRAORDINARY JURISDICTION Writ Petition Civil No.
For the sake of brevity these two pieces of legislations shall hereafter be referred to as the Act and the Rules, respectively.
April 15, 1987.
WITH Writ Petition Civil No.
This was a stop gap arrangement.
Notices were issued to the Union, the State Governments and the Union Territories requiring them to file companynters indicating the action taken for setting up a District Forum in each district under the Act.
During the last few years preceding the enactment there was in this companyntry a marked awareness among the companysumers of goods that they were number getting their moneys worth and were being exploited by both traders and manufacturers of companysumer goods.
The object of the legislation, as the Preamble of the Act proclaims, is for better protection of the interests of companysumers.
After the companynters were filed by most of the States, except a few, this Court passed an order on January 17, 1990 directing that every district shall have a District Forum with the District Judge of the district as its President.
1141 of 1988.
742 of 1990.
