About State Commission and District Commissions

INTRODUCTION

The historic words of Mahatma Gandhi where he put the consumer as the focal point of our developmental efforts pointing out that consumer is the most important person and John F. Kennedy, the then President of the United States had also informed the U.S. Congress in 1962 about the consumers rights and said that “consumers, by definition INCLUDE US ALL.” But the views of the consumers are often not heard. He made a declaration of four basic consumer rights, namely:-

The right to safety
The right to information
The right to choice, and
The right to representation

Thereafter, the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 was enacted on 24.12.1986, which is an innovation in the Indian context to provide better protection to the interest of the consumers and for that purpose to make provision for the establishment of Consumer Courts for the settlement of consumer disputes and matters of connected therewith. It is a milestone in the history of socio-economic legislation which has two fold purposes, first, to provide better protection to the consumers and second, to provide speedy, inexpensive and just Redressal of their grievances. The most important feature of this Act is the provision of setting up three-tier quasi-judicial machinery viz. the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum (in short ‘District Forum’) at the District level, State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (in short ‘State Commission’) at State level and National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (in short ‘National Commission’) at National / Central level.

The new Consumer Protection Act, 2019 (35 of 2019) came into force w.e.f. 20.07.2020 vide which the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum is renamed as District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission and have jurisdiction to entertain the complaints, where the value of the goods of services paid as consideration does not exceed Rs. Fifty lakh. The State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission shall have jurisdiction to entertain the complaints, where the value of the goods of services paid as consideration exceeds rupees Fifty lakh but does not exceed Rs. Two Crore and the Hon’ble National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission shall have jurisdiction to entertain the complaints, where the value of the goods of services paid as consideration exceeds rupees Two Crore.

FUNCTIONS

Haryana Government lays great stress on safeguarding the interests of the consumers of the State and has been pioneer in creation of Redressal Mechanism in all the Districts in the State. Initially in the year 1989, the Haryana State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission at Chandigarh with two District Consumer Disputes Redressal Fora at Ambala and Hisar were set up. At present State Commission is functioning in its own building at Bays No.3-6, Sector 4, Panchkula since 13.06.2006. Subsequently from time to time between the year 1993 to 2010, 19 more District Consumer Disputes Redressal Fora were set up, in the remaining 19 Districts. At present, 21 District Fora are functioning in all the Districts in the State of Haryana.
The people of Haryana State have become more and more aware of their consumer rights as a result of wide publicity being given by Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution known as ‘Jago Grahak Jago’ through electronic media as well as print media and by the State Government by holding camp, seminars/workshops and exhibitions on different occasions etc. and to educate the children about the rights of the consumer and to mobilize youngsters by instilling in them the spirit of protection of Consumer Rights to impart knowledge about the role of the consumer in protection of their rights and to strengthen the consumer movement in the Country, 135 Consumer Clubs in seven Districts i.e. 10 in Narnaul, 13 in Hisar, 15 in Sirsa, 12 in Jind, 42 in Gurgaon, 14 in Mewat and 29 in Rohtak have been set up. The scheme of consumer clubs was launched in 2002 according to which a consumer club can be set up to each School/College affiliated to a Government recognized Board/ University, similarly more voluntary organizations are required to be promoted and established who may boost consumer awareness. Despite this the consumer awareness functions are organized by involving local bodies and Municipalities, Panchayat Samities, Gram Panchayats, Mahila Mandals and other voluntary organizations. The institution of consumer cases has been increased manifold due to this large scale awareness among the consumers. The State Commission and District Fora in the State of Haryana are doing their best efforts for early disposal of consumer cases.