Consumer complaints and their disposal with reference to consumer protection act: a study on Durg district of Chhattisgarh

 

Tripti Shastri

Research Scholar, Institute of Management, Pt. Ravishankar Shukla University, Raipur

 

ABSTRACT:

Consumer is a person who uses goods or avails services. Thus, every person is a consumer since beginning. In legal terminology ``Consumer`` means any person – who buys or avails goods/services for consideration which has been paid or promised or partly paid or any system of deferred payment and it includes person(s) other than the person who paid the consideration.[CPA 1986]. How a “consumer” changes into a complainant? Every consumer/ user expects that purchased product or availed service should be satisfactory.  When quality or performance of these goods or services become unsatisfactory, When the quality or performance of products and services is not satisfactory  and dissatisfaction arises which later on convert into complaints if not respond, then consumer disputes arises.  This can be classified into two i.e. product related and service related.India enacted a specific Act called the Consumer Protection Act 1986 for dealing with consumer complaints. This study is based on the secondary data available with the redressal agency of Durg to analyze the types of consumer cases filed  between 2010-15 and their disposal. Findings show that number of cases of new registration is increasing but proportionate disposal of cases was not seen. Standard-Deviation study reveals that there is no consistency in new registration (70.36 Standard-Deviation) compared-to disposal-rate showing consistency with low value (4.69 SD).This study also describes the nature of cases filed during 2010-15, highest number of complaints pertaining to Telephone services and lowest for Electricity. Comparison of complaints of products and services shows that complaints of products are little higher than service related complaints.

 

 

INTRODUCTION:

Since the beginning of human life every one is a consumer. All smallest or largest products are made for their uses, similarly all services are also created for availing; therefore consumer is in the centre of all of business activities. It is rightly said that if the consumer is absent everything is absent. But unfortunately, today a consumer is victim of business activities by deception, exploitation and misleading by professional marketers.

 

Although consumers have been victims since for long, but the moral of business did not allow them to play with the life of consumers therefore anything that was hazardous for life should never sold to them. Sake of profit several malpractices like adulteration, improper weighing or any profit making tactics are used by the professional sellers. Rapid economic growth maximum profit making by hook or crook became the motto of business community. Naturally, the consumers have become sufferers at the hands of economic growth.

 

Protection of consumer’s rights started since 18^th century but it took proper shape after 1962 and the UN declared its guidelines in the form of consumer rights, later on they accepted worldwide for consumer protection. India has also followed these guidelines and enacted Consumer Protection Act 1986 specifically for victim consumer. According to CPA 1986 definition of consumer has been modified by including services along with products. Services including banking, insurance, medical, transportation etc are intangible products which are offered by service provider to consumer for availing serviceable products with consideration. By offer and acceptance, it becomes a legal contract which has to be fulfilled by service provider. If the service provider fails to fulfill the commitment then unsatisfied service user goes for complaining either to service provider or to authorize legal body for redressal.  Similarly when consumer of goods are unsatisfied with reference to condition told to him at the time of sale with quality of product, quantity of product or performance of durable product At that time  he approaches to  the seller for the same, when he denies to do so and he further remain unsatisfied. In this condition he can file a case against the seller under Consumer Protection Act 1986    In this way a simple consumer or user of services is converted into a `Complainant`. CPA 1986 is a specific law for giving legal remedy to complainant by a quasi judicial framework of courts i.e. District Consumer Forum, State Commission and National Commission respectively at district, state and national level.

 

Consumer: 

The word consumer has simple meaning “one who consumes the goods and services”.  An individual who buys products or services for personal use and not for manufacturing or resale is a consumer. A consumer is a person or group who pays to consume the goods or service produced by a seller (i.e company, organization) (Wikipedia). In a very common word each person is consumer who consumes anything after paying consideration either directly or indirectly. Anyone who spends money or exchanges article for goods and services may be called a consumer. [6]. According to section 2/1/d of CPA 1986 ``consumer`` means any person who–

 

Buys any goods for consideration which has been paid or promised or partly paid or partly promised or any system of deferred payment and includes any user of such goods other than the person who buys such goods for consideration.

 

Hires or avails of any service for a consideration which has been paid or promised or partly paid and partly promised or under any system of deferred payment and includes any beneficiary of such services other than the person who hires or avails.

 

But it does not include a person who obtains such goods for resale or for any commercial purpose, similarly does not include a person who avails of such services for commercial purpose.

 

In addition, consumer is not only a person who pays for a product or service, but also one who is ultimate beneficiary. For example, a father pays for a bike but beneficiary is his son who uses that bike so he also has right to come forward for any unsatisfactory result. Thus, not only the father can be a complainant because he paid the consideration, but also his son who is the user.

 

Complainant:

According to Consumer Protection A ct 1986 section 2/1/b ` complainant ` is -

 

A consumer, any registered voluntary consumer association, the central government or any state government who or which makes a complaint, one or more consumers having common interest, in case of death of a consumer his legal heir.[15] .It means complainant is not only an individual person but also group of persons having same dispute with same marketer or same service provider. In simple words complainant is a person who makes complaint to show he/she is not fully satisfied by purchased products or availed service. Complaint is a written allegation but negative voicing for product performance is also a complaint. Thus, we have a number of oral complainants existing in society without any relief. This situation is not good for business also because unsatisfactory consumers not only leave  the product/service but also motivate others to reject them.

 

Consumer Dispute:

Under section 2/1/e, of CPA 1986 ` consumer dispute means a dispute where the person against whom a complaint has been made, denies or disputes the allegations contained in the complaint. Consumer dispute appears when a person is not satisfied by product or services. Consumer may not be satisfied due to imperfection or shortcoming in the quality, quantity, potency and purity, or deficiency in services.[11]  The axel of the jurisdiction of CPA is ` consumer dispute`. Any relief under this Act is available to consumer on consumer disputes, so it is a condition precedent that complainant must be a consumer and his dispute is a consumer dispute. If these conditions are  not fulfilled then that complaint would not get relief from consumer courts. It has been decided by various judgments that following are not consumer disputes –

1.     The dispute related to civil matter

2.     The dispute related to immovable property.

3.     The dispute of breach of contract

4.     The Services as to sovereign nature.

5.     The matter pending in other court.

6.     The criminal proceeding

 

Redressal Agency:

Redressal agency is a platform where an unsatisfied consumer goes for seeking relief or getting redressal. There are three levels of consumer dispute redressal agencies established under section 9 of CPA. These are -

1.     A  Consumer Dispute Redressal Forum which is known as `District Forum` established by the state government in each district.

2.     A consumer Dispute Redressal Commission to be known as ` State Commission` established by state government.

3.      A National Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission to be known as ` National Commission` established by central government.

 

Composition of District Forum:

Each District Forum shall consist of –

A person who is or has been or is qualified to be District Judge, who shall be its President. Two other members, one of whom shall be a woman, who shall have the following qualifications namely- Be not less than thirty five years of age. Possess a bachelor degree from a recognized university. Be person of ability, integrity and standing and have adequate knowledge and experience of at least ten years dealing with problems relating to economics, law, commerce, accountancy, industry, public affairs or administration; [11]

 

REVIEW OF LITERATURE:

The Gurubax singh[5] book contains a detailed commentary on the Consumer Protection Act 1986. This book also contains land mark judgments of National Commission and various State Commissions which are helpful for adjudication in similar matters. One of the good feature of this book is model form of ` complaint` and ` appeal `under the Act. Singh has also described about few international institutions working for consumer protection. In ancient India Kautilya was an economic expert who wrote `Arthshastra`, in which several measures are outlined for regulating the activities of merchants, artisans and craftsmen. Heavy penalty have to be imposed and punishments given to such person who breaks the regulation. A  Goldsmith has to pay fine for substitution of cheaper metal. [4] Arthur Best [1] described the nature and scope of consumer complaints and agencies designed to handle those complaints. He has described three stages of consumer complaints – perception of the problem, voicing, and resolution of the complaint. S. Rajmohan [11]described in his book the origin and growth of consumer movement, the establishment of consumer dispute redressal forum and the awareness of consumers. The study of Bhashyam[6] examined the working of the consumer forums in Andhra Pradesh. The study revealed that urban consumers are more aware about their rights in compare to rural consumers. Amrik Singh Sudan [13]state that the process in the disposal of complaints has been observed to be slow because of part time appointment of members, administrative delays and ambiguity about the provisions of Consumer Protection Act. Saraf, D.N. [12] described the evolution of consumer law and shows its development in USA, U.K and India. It gives a profile of Indian consumer problems arising due to monopoly of production, distribution and control by state on essential goods and services. Savarkar, G. [14] in his study depicted that the main reason of none filing the complaint before any District Forum was the lack of awareness about the Consumer Protection provisions.  Thanulingum and Kochadai [16] conducted a study on evaluation of consumer awareness in Madhurai. That study revealed that majority of consumers was aware about the Consumer Protection Act-1986, they know their consumer rights but very few consumers know the procedure of filing complaint.

 

Nayak, R.K.[7]  in his book visualized the consumers themselves as guardian of their own right. He opened that consumers itself responsible for their exploitations. On the legal front Nayak noted that the legislation were not enforced properly  therefore unfair trade practices of sellers not under control. Although laws made for protection of consumers interest, yet it needed proper enforcement.  He argued that the legislative enactments.   Reddy and Ramesh (9) examined the performance of District Consumer Forum in two cities viz. Hyderabad and Secundrabad.  Since inception of forum District Forum of Hyderabad received 12,116, out of which 8,051 (66%) of the registered cases were disposed off and about 4065 (34%) remained in pending. Study also revealed that only 19% of the respondent consumers aware about the act and it was also clear that awareness among males was greater than females.

 

Bagla Committee [3] set by the union Government for supervising the functioning of Consumer Forums, found that presently no satisfactory arrangement were made for receiving the complaints, issuing notices and inspecting the registered cases in the Forum.

 

The committee recommended two clerks for every 250 pending files for arrangements of files , it is needed for saving of time in searching records and speedy redressal of complaints.

 

Asha Nagendra [2] conducted a survey in Agra to examine the working system of Consumer Forum and to study the Impact of incorporation of District Consumer Forum on sellers as well on buyers. 200 those consumers were selected who had filed their complaints. The findings of study show that majority of complaints satisfied with filing procedure because it is very simple. Majority of complaints took time of 1 to 3 years for final decision which is not good. Some complainants could not receive their full claim within time limit because of forum`s working.

 

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY:

Consumer forum in Durg District was established in 2000 but consumer awareness about getting redressal has increased gradually. This study is inclusion of  number and nature of cases filed in forum and their disposal during 2010-15, which can explain  how many cases filed per year, the nature of dispute[ i.e. product related or service related]. The study of per year disposal will be able to explain efficiency of the forum. By this study RESERCH scholar is trying to get knowledge of awareness of consumers about their rights through increasing or decreasing number of cases.

 

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:

1.     To know the level of awareness of consumers about their rights through filed cases.

2.     To know the nature of cases filed in forum during 2010-15

3.     To know the rate of disposal per year during 2010-15

 

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:

This study is based on secondary data with the help of  District Consumer Forum Durg and data are analysed through statistical method.

 

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY: 

In Chhattisgarh, 16 Consumer Dispute Redressal Agencies are working , which work as full time and link court to cover all 27 Districts.  Purpose of this study is to know the number of cases filed in Durg District during 2010-15. All cases filed will be categorized through their nature wise i.e. product related or service related. After this division it will be easy to know which type of case is repeatedly filed and which type is rarely.  This study also might be able to know whether awareness of victim consumers increased for filing complaint or getting relief.

Population of the Study:

Population of this study is District Consumer Redressal Agency (District Forum) of Durg .

 

Sample of the study:

Sample of this study is number of total cases filed in Durg Forum during 2010-15.

 

Collection of data:

The study is based on secondary data which are collected from Durg Consumer Redressal Forum by researcher.  Collected data are tabulated on the basis of the objectives, which have been filed during 2010-15.  

 

ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS:

Analysis of data needed some specific tools for clear explanation of data. In this study data explained by simple percentage for per year disposal of cases , which clearly explains which year disposal is highest and which year disposal is lowest. The next statistical tool is standard deviation which is most commonly used measures of dispersion. Standard deviation is `` the square root of the arithmetic average of the squares of the deviation measured from the mean. Standard deviation helps in ascertaining the degree of variation or uniformity in two or more data sets. It also helps to gauge the representativeness of the man. If we have two o more comparable distributions with the same mean then the distribution with the smallest standard deviation has the most representative mean. But the absolute measures of dispersion fail to give a precise idea about the variability without reference to the central tendency of the series. Further absolute measures of dispersion do not enable us to make comparison between two or more distributions which are expresses in different units or even when expressed in the same nits and have widely different mans. In above cases we will have to use some relative measures of dispersion, so in this study I used coefficient of variation based on standard deviation.

 

                          

Table 1 -- Year wise Disposal and Pendency of cases

Figure 1:

               

 

From the above table 1 it can be seen that in year 2010 only 8 cases were pending, but in the same year 449 fresh cases were registered out of which only 99 cases could be decided and number of pending cases increased to 358. In 2011, new registered cases were 347 and same year disposal of cases was 440, in addition 358 cases were pending so final result showed pendency of 265 cases. Next year newly registered cases were 367 and total 360 cases disposed off in the same year but due to previous pendency of 265 cases, still 272 cases remained for decision. In the year 2013, total 226 cases were finally decided out of 590 cases, so 364 cases remained for disposal. In year 2014, number of pending cases increased to 442 while new registration was 372 out of which 294 cases were disposed off but due to previous pending of  364 cases the performance of forum was poor.  In 2015 new cases were 824 out of which 583 decided yet number of pending cases was 683. It is also seen that number of new registrations increased every year but in same proportion number of disposal of cases is not increasing therefore every year number of pending cases has  gradually increased.

 

Table 1 also reveals  average status of cases, as per data 446.16 is average of total for new cases in six years period,  while average of disposal is 333.67 which is less than registration that’s why average number of pending cases is greater than average of disposal case. It is desirable that the number of disposals should also increase proportionately.  The study of Average percentage of pendency also shows that previous pendency of 38.96% increased to 54.35% because 61.03% fresh cases are registered while only 45.64% cases could be finally decided. It means working of forum is slower than new registrations.

 

With the help of calculation of standard deviation of given data again it is clear  that deviation values are higher in all cases except disposal which is only 4.69. The highest deviation appeared in new cases ( 70.86) because no consistency appeared in registration.  Calculation of Coefficient of variance (coff.var) also shows lowest value for disposal of cases i.e 1.40 which reveals that number of disposal of cases consistently increasing while in all other data ups and downs appearing , it means no regularity in new registration.  Every year`s pendency depends upon  disposal of cases,  if number of new cases increased then the number of disposal should be increase in same proportion ,but it not happened in Durg District forum, therefore instead of increasing rate of  disposal of cases still current pendency shows average 54.35%

 

 

 

Table No 2 -  Types of Cases in District Consumer Forum Durg during 2010-15

 

Figure 2:

 

 

From  table 2 consumer complaints in District Consumer Forum Durg are of two types i.e. service related and product related. Service related complaints belong to Banking, Medical, Telegraph, Insurance, housing, electricity, airlines and railway, whereas product related complaints categorized as other type which includes  defect in products, defect in performance, extra charge etc.   Study also reveals that every year product related complaints gradually increased, while service related complaints did not show any consistent trend of increase or decrease. 

 

The analysis of data shows that  among all types of service related complaints, average  rate of complaint   was  highest  for   `telephone’ service (197)  during 2010-15 ,   while  disputes  of `electricity` services  appeared lowest (23) among all type of complaints.  In the year 2015 the sudden fall of number of telephone Complaint is due to new notification of TRAI to sort out all disputes in Telegraph tribunal. It is also clear that second rank of average of Insurance complaint is 110. Data reveals that number of complaints in year 2014 was only 40 which ordinarily increased in 2015. The reason of this increase is nature of compensation awarded by forum. This increased the faith among consumers about forum and attracted more complainants to file their complaint against insurance companies and get compensation.

 

Data also reveals that average rate of complaints belonging to ` other` category i.e. disputes of product was highest (198). So it is also clear that consumers of different products in Durg are not satisfied by the quality of product, warrantee period, defective goods etc. Consumer of Durg district is aware of their rights i.e. right to be protected against unfair trade practices, right to safety, right to choice, right to be heard etc. Therefore it is primary duty of manufacturer, shopkeeper or distributer to satisfy consumers, but when they fail to satisfy them, then consumers have right to go to District Consumer Forum for seeking redressal. 

 

LIMITATION OF THE STUDY:

This study is based only on secondary data therefore perception of complainant not analysed to explore what was their experience with marketers who exploited them and just because of that they went to Forum for complaining. This study is also not able to describe the experiences of complainants after final decision, whether they are satisfied or not.

 

FURTHER IMPLICATION:

This study is describing about the nature of cases filed and disposed of by District Consumer Forum Durg during 2010-15. Future researchers may use this data in comparison with other districts and explore which forum is working efficiently. This study will also be helpful for non government consumer associations working for protection of consumer rights.

 

REFERENCES:

1.     Arthur Best  When consumer complaints , Columbia university press 1988.

2.     Asha Nagendra (2002), Consumer Protection: A Critical Appraisal of the Consumer District Redressal Fora of Agra, Dep. of Family Research Management Institute, Home Science, Dr.B.R.A University, Agra.

3.     Bagla Committee Report, (2000), regarding Consumer Forum, set up by union government.

4.     David G. and Epstein `` Consumer Law in Nutshell,`` London west publishing company 1981

5.     Gurubax singh ``law of consumer Protection`` Jaipur Bharat law publication 1989

6.     G. Bhashyam`` CONSUMER Protection in India : A study selected consumer forums in Andhra Pradesh Unpublished PhD thesis , department of Commerce, Osmania university Hyderabad 2000

7.     Nayak, R.K. (1991): “Consumer Protection Law in India, A critical treatise on consumer justice”, N.M. Triphati Pvt. Ltd, Bombay

8.     R.N.P. Chaudhary ` Consumer Protection Law Provisions and Procedure` 2005 Deep and Deep publication Delhi.

9.      Reddy, N.P. and Ramesh, A.N. (1998), The Role of Independent Agency to protect the consumers’ interest: An Empirical Study, Indian Journal of Marketing, 28: 2-11

10.  Shivaprakasan`` Recent trend that reflect the consumer protection in India`` Indian consumer co-operator , vol 22, No 1, Jan to March 1995 p 4

11.  S Rajmohan `` A study on extent consumer awareness in Madurai`` unpublished MBA project submitted to Madurai Kamraj University Madurai 1996

12.  Saraf D,N `` law of Consumer protection in India, Bombay, N.M. Tripathi March 1992 p 249

13.   Sudan Amrik singh “Activating Consumer Movement: A case study of Division Consumer Forum, Jammu (JandK state)” - Indian journal of marketing –Vol XXXIIJan-Feb 2002.p.5

14     Savarkar.G, “Consumer Awareness: A Survey Analysis,” Indian Journal of Marketing, Vol. 25, Dec. 1996, p. 13-21.

15    S.N.Pandey Consumer protection Act

16    Thanulingam and Kochadai, (1989), An evaluation of Consumer Awareness, Indian Journal of Marketing, 19 (8): 3-8.

 

 

 

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