New Delhi: A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking directions to appoint the President and members in the District and State Consumer Dispute Redressal Commissions across the country as the government has failed to fill up the vacancies violating Article 21 of the Constitution of India.
The plea has been filed by a law student, Saloni Gautam, who had filed an RTI earlier seeking information regarding vacancies in the consumer redressal commissions and based on the reply, she has approached the top court now.
Through a plea, she has informed the court that there are 16 vacant posts of presidents and 25 vacant posts of members lying in the redressal commissions. There are also vacant posts for the staff and many commissions do not have proper infrastructure leading to the pendency of cases.
She has prayed for proper infrastructure in the dispute redressal commissions and appointment of staffs for the speedy delivery of justice.
"Petitioner is filing this PIL....challenging inaction of governments in appointing president, members and staff before district consumer dispute redressal commissions and state consumer disputes redressal commissions across India, which is causing pendency of consumer cases all over India and justice is getting delayed due to non-action of the governments across India and is the antithesis to the Article 21 of the Constitution of India," said the plea, filed through advocate Om Prakash Parihar.
It said that in July, the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 came into force, and it changed the pecuniary jurisdiction for the district, state and national commissions respectively.
The plea said that pecuniary limit for district commission has been increased to up to Rs one crore, for state commission, it has been increased to up to Rs 10 crores and for the national commission, it is now over and above Rs 10 crores.
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