New Act comes into force, posts in dist consumer panels vacant

Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, July 19

Even as the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, is coming into effect from Monday, the state may not be able to effectively use it owing to the vacant posts of president or members in its district panels.

In Jalandhar, the post of the president of District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum is vacant since long. The president of Kapurthala forum, Justice (retd) Karnail Singh, attends the working here on the first three days of the week. He serves as the Kapurthala forum president on Thursday and Friday. The Jalandhar forum has just one member as of now, Jyotsana Thatai, who has been attending duty at Ludhiana forum too, where both posts of members are lying vacant.

In Ludhiana, KK Kareer was appointed the new president of the forum. Both posts of members are lying vacant here too and the forum cannot function till it gets at least one member.

The Patiala forum too has got a new regular president, Jasjeet Singh Bhinder. At present, there is no member here. Its former member Inderjeet Kaur has retired, while BS Dhaliwal, who had additional charge of Patiala, is now deputed in Mansa.

The president of the Bathinda district forum, MP Singh Pahwa, retired in December last year. Since then, no president has been appointed, due to which the functioning remains affected. Amritsar has two members, but no president. A forum member of Tarn Taran has additional charge of Amritsar.

The orders issued to appoint presidents of three district fora — Gurdaspur, Ferozepur and Amritsar– have been stayed by the High Court.

Surinder Mittal, a former member of the Jalandhar forum, said: “The new Act is very strict against misleading advertisements and even has the powers to recall these. But it will be effective only if the quorum is complete in all district fora”.

Jaspreet Singh, Additional Secretary, Consumer Affairs Department, Punjab, said: “We recently made some appointments, few of which got stayed by the court. We will soon have another meeting with the selection committee and will try to fill the remaining posts.”

Justice (retd) PS Dhaliwal, president of the Punjab State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, said some jurisdictional changes in the Act would benefit the consumers. “But quite a few Sections are yet to be notified,” he added.

Mediation cell in each district

• District forum renamed as district commission. A mediation cell to be set up in each commission.
• The opposite party needs to deposit 50%of the amount ordered by district commission before filing an appeal. Earlier, the ceiling was at Rs25,000.
• The limitation period for filing of an appeal has been increased from 30 days to 45 days.
• State commission to have a president and four members.
• The original pecuniary jurisdiction of district commission shall be Rs1 crore, state commission from Rs1 crore to 10 crore and NCDRC more than Rs10 crore.
• Complainant can also institute the complaint within the territorial jurisdiction of the commission where he/she resides or works