Supreme Court: Consumers having similar grievance can file joint complaint

Tribune News Service

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New Delhi, December 20

Holding that consumers having similar grievances can file a joint complaint, the Supreme Court has said, “There is nothing in the Consumer Protection Act 2019 to prohibit these few consumers from joining together and filing a joint complaint.”

In cases involving more consumers than one having similar grievance, it’s not necessary that they must file consumer complaint in representative capacity under Section 35(1)(c) of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, a Bench led by Justice Hemant Gupta said, adding, such consumers could join hands and file a joint complaint.

The verdict came on a petition filed by a builder challenging a verdict of the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission allowing 91 purchasers of 51 apartments in a residential complex to file a consumer complaint in a representative capacity on behalf of and for the benefit of more than about 1,000 purchasers.

The court modified the commission’s order to the effect that the complaint filed by the respondents shall be treated as a joint complaint filed on behalf of only the respondents herein and not as a complaint filed in a representative capacity on behalf of or for the benefit of all owners of all 1,134 flats.