15 out of 20 consumer forums have no heads

Balwant Garg
Tribune News Service
Faridkot, December 16

Consumer cases are piling up in the absence of presidents for district consumer forums (DCFs) in the state. As many as 15 DCFs out of 20 in the state are without presidents for the last six months. It has hampered the administration of justice in these judicial forums.

Not only presidents, even 21 posts of member out of 40 posts in the DCFs in the state are lying vacant for a long time. Hearings are not possible in the absence of president and its members.

KAP Sinha, Principal Secretary to the Punjab Government, Department of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs, said the vacant posts in the DCFs could not be filled because of a legal fight over the selection of four presidents and six members in August 2016.

“However, we have started the process to fill 11 posts of president and 15 members. The High Court has stayed the process to fill four posts of president and six members,” he said.

A large number of cases in the DCFs are pending for over a year, lacking the necessary quorum of presidents and members to hear and dispose of cases. While in the 15 DCFs, there is no president, in three other forums where there is a president, there is not a single member to make the necessary quorum to decide a case.

In Faridkot, Ajit Aggarwal, president, District Forum, has additional charges of Moga, Muktsar and Ferozepur DCFs for the last over a year. Aggarwal has five days a week to look after the work of three forums.

However, in the absence of any jury member in Faridkot, he could not decide even a single case since October 12, 2017. While a jury member retired on October 2017, other one retired on July 2016.

In Faridkot where the average pendency of complaint was earlier 30-35, now 650 cases have piled up. Similar is the situation in many other district forums where in the absence of president or members, the forums are almost defunct.