New Delhi: The aroma of Mughlai food from the restaurants below the district consumer dispute redressal commission premises in Delhi’s Shalimar Bagh often makes its way into the courtroom, mixing in with the perspiration-laden air inside.
Inside the courtroom, the blades of the barely functional wall-mounted fans seem to be rotating without circulating any air, leaving behind stagnancy — in the air and in the functioning of the forum. The sole black pedestal fan, placed by one of the members of the commission, shoulders the heavy responsibility of circulating air in the entire space.
Case files remain strewn all around — from the kitchen sink in the pantry to the dark storage rooms with non-functional lights.
The space paints a grim picture of a forum that is unable to mend its own shortcomings, when it has been tasked with addressing the grievances of the consumers, who come knocking at its doors.
Last month, an order passed by another such district consumer forum in Dwarka went viral. In the order passed 21 May, the forum lamented the lack of air conditioners, coolers, or a washroom in the courtroom. The order conveyed frustration on the part of the president as well as members of the forum, who asserted that they could not hear arguments in such conditions. They adjourned the case to 21 November.
Ever since the order drew attention, Dwarka forum has got 10 new window ACs, albeit on rent. However, other consumer forums have not been as lucky.
The Consumer Protection Act, 2019 intends to provide for protection of the interests of consumers, and sets up authorities for timely and effective administration and settlement of consumers’ disputes. Delhi has 10 district consumer disputes redressal commissions.
While the Dwarka commission order grabbed eyeballs, a review of other consumer forums across Delhi reveal a similar condition of an egregious lack of infrastructure and resources — from the lack of stenographers to dysfunctional air conditioners, and precious case files lying around due to deficient storage space.
‘Do not touch’
Two papers with the typed words — “Do not touch it is falling” — adorn the lopsided ledge in front of the judges’ dais inside the central district consumer forum located at Kashmere Gate.
Staff members at the forum tell ThePrint that despite the forum located in the main Inter State Bus Terminal building, the furniture inside the courtroom has deteriorated over the years. The dais is one such example, with termites having infested the wooden panels.
The roof panels have also given way to reveal the wires and pipes that they are supposed to conceal from public view. The courtroom itself has a functional AC, with the president and members hearing a lawyer arguing vehemently for an order, flanked with photos of B.R.Ambedkar and Bhagat Singh on the walls.
However, the ACs inside the staff cabins as well as the president and members’ chambers have stopped functioning.
In the Shalimar Bagh forum, miscreants allegedly stole copper wires and other internal parts from the outdoor AC panels fixed on the terrace of the building one night in 2021, staff officials tell ThePrint. The forum is situated on the first floor of the Convenient Shopping Centre on a busy street in the area.
The staff members say that when they tried to switch on the ACs the next morning, none of them worked. An examination by technicians revealed missing parts, leading to registration of an FIR.
The ACs were fixed after that, but again a few parts were stolen in 2022, another staff member tells ThePrint. The AC outdoor units were then installed on the same floor as a precautionary measure.
However, the dozen ACs in the courtroom, the staff areas and member’s cabins haven’t been working since last year.
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No washroom, water supply
The Dwarka forum’s order, which went viral, spoke of the lack of most amenities.
“There is neither an air conditioner nor a cooler in the courtroom. The temperature is more than 40 degrees Celsius. There is too much heat in the courtroom which leads to sweating, as such it is difficult to hear arguments,” the order signed by the forum president, Suresh Kumar Gupta, and two other members, Harshali Kaur and Ramesh Chand Yadav.
However, this didn’t seem like just a seasonal inconvenience. Apart from the dearth of these bare necessities during the summer with record-high temperatures this year, the order revealed a general lack of infrastructure in the consumer forum.
“Moreover, there is no water supply even to go to the washroom to ease ourselves,” the order further noted. The case the court was hearing was then adjourned to 21 November, when the national capital would be enjoying milder weather.
This is despite the fact that the 2019 Act asserts that every complaint received by the forum has to be disposed of as expeditiously as possible.
According to the Act, the district commission has to endeavour to decide the case within three months from the date of receipt of notice by the opposite party, where the complaint does not require analysis or testing of commodities, and within five months if it requires analysis or testing of commodities. It also says that no adjournment should ordinarily be granted by the district commission “unless sufficient cause is shown”.
Similar concerns seem to be plaguing other consumer forums across Delhi.
The Shalimar Bagh forum has just one functional washroom, which was originally meant for the two members and the president of the commission. This washroom is now used by the entire staff, as well as elderly litigants, women and children. However, most litigants still step out and use the public toilet across the street.
The water dispenser is also malfunctional, and staff members often have to request the restaurants downstairs to refill their water bottles, a staff member tells ThePrint. “The lack of amenities often leads to litigants and lawyers getting frustrated and abusing the staff members. But what can we do?”
The forum was renovated a few years ago, and also got a separate washroom for transgender persons and persons with disabilities. However, this washroom has an Indian-style toilet seat.
Extra caseload, overflowing case files
The lack of infrastructure seems to be contributing to the pendency in these forums. According to sources in Delhi’s district forums, as of 1 June, the 10 consumer forums have approximately 22,400 cases pending, with the Shalimar Bagh forum having the largest pendency of around 3,900 cases.
The already allocated storage capacity also isn’t able to keep up with the caseload that these commissions have received over the years.
For instance, the Shalimar Bagh forum was renovated a few years ago, and was given specific space for the case files. However, with a pendency of around 3,900 cases, along with files of the cases disposed of in the past five years, the entire space is littered with files — they’re in the pantry, in the office space, on the floor, in the courtroom, and in cupboards lined right outside on the same floor.
“The clutter often makes it difficult to locate specific case files when needed,” a staff member tells ThePrint.
The authorities have been aware of the Shalimar Bagh forum being burdened with a higher caseload, often due to the sheer size of its jurisdiction. In April, the Delhi State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission noted that the forum had 4,209 pending cases. It then decided to transfer 155 of them to the Tis Hazari forum and 160 to Nand Nagri.
This isn’t the first time that the state commission has taken such a step. In February last year, it decided to transfer 214 cases from Shalimar Bagh to Tis Hazari and an equal number of cases to Kashmere Gate. Additionally, it also transferred 250 cases from Saini Enclave to Nand Nagri, and another 250 from Dwarka to Janakpuri.
This was done because according to the 2019 law, state commissions also have administrative control over the district commissions within their jurisdiction over matters relating to performance, besides a supervisory role.
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‘Dirty place’
Apart from infrastructure, most of these district forums are also affected by the lack of staff members needed to help with the increasing caseload on the administrative side.
In total, all consumer courts in Delhi have vacancies of 10 stenographer posts, eight clerical staff posts, 11 multitasking staff posts, and 11 peon posts.
The lack of stenographers seems to be a major hurdle in clearing the backlog of cases, several staff members in these commissions tell ThePrint. The outdated computer systems add to the woes of those working to solve the consumer disputes.
The lack of amenities and infrastructure leads to frustration among not just the staff members and members of these forums, but also the litigants and lawyers.
The consumer forums are now seeing visitors leave Google reviews, commenting on the infrastructure — or the lack thereof — in the premises.
For the Saini Enclave forum, a reviewer wrote three weeks ago: “No washroom or drinking water facility. No facilities for specially abled people.” For Shalimar Bagh, Abhishek Kumar wrote, “Sorry state of affairs. Poor infrastructure with no drinking water, public convenience and waiting room. No virtual hearing facility.”
Another review read, “Judges are decent but the place is dirty.” A third just wrote, “dorty (dirty) place.”
A reviewer for the Dwarka forum wrote four days ago, “Staff is cooperative but the infrastructure amd basic amenities are worst then hell. Need to refurbished the infrastructure (sic).”
“Too filthy…needs swach Bharat abhiyan there …goverment office in a trash can. The toilets are filthy and smell of vomits (sic),” another reviewer wrote.
‘Empowerment of consumers’
The state governments are responsible for implementing the provisions of the 2019 law. In Delhi, these district forums come under the Department of Food Supplies and Consumer Affairs.
The situation remains grim despite the Supreme Court initiating a suo motu petition over the “inaction of governments in appointing president and members/staff of districts and state consumer disputes redressal commission and inadequate infrastructure across India”.
During the hearings, the apex court has often pulled up various governments over the functioning of these forums.
In one such order passed on 11 August 2021, it noted that while “empowerment of the consumers” was the legislative intent of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 as well as the 2019 Act, “the ground reality is quite different as there is little endeavour to translate this Legislative intent into an administrative infrastructure with requisite facilities, members and staff to facilitate the decision on the consumer complaints”.
The Supreme Court also noted that the central government has allocated funds for consumer commission infrastructure. This allocation is under the Guidelines and Norms (Infrastructural Benchmarks) for the period 2021-2022 to 2025-2026. This scheme covers the norms for both building and non-building purposes.
For instance, under the scheme, building grants are also released by the central government. For non-building assets, such as furniture, computer peripherals, reference books, office equipment, CCTV and audio recordings, Rs 25 lakh to each state commission and Rs 10 lakh are released to each District Commission for a five-year period.
The central government has been providing financial assistance to the states for strengthening infrastructure of the consumer forums, and computer hardware/software and technical manpower are provided for computerisation of their functioning.
However, successive court orders have taken note of the fact that the utilisation of the central funding, in turn, requires planning by the states so that the funds do not lapse.
The top court noted a “lack of coordination and understanding of the scheme”, in an order passed in December 2021. The court, at the time, issued directions to ensure that these allocated funds are properly utilised.
However, the last detailed order passed in March 2023 took note of the issues concerning the state and district commissions across the country, as flagged by the amici curiae in the case, senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan and advocate Aditya Narain.
These ranged from the lack of adequate infrastructure to the insufficient funds “to deal with (even) minor repairs”, it said.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)
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