INTRODUCTION

Customers dont expect you to be perfect,

but they expect you to fix things when they go wrong.
-- Donald Porter
Consumer rights are an integral part of our lives like the consumerist
way of life. We have all made use of them at some point in our daily
lives. Market resources and influences are growing by the day and so is
the awareness of ones consumer rights. These rights are well defined
and there are agencies like the Government, consumer courts and
voluntary organizations that work towards safeguarding. While we like
to know about our rights and make full use of them, consumer
responsibility is an area which is still not demarcated and it is hard to
spell out that all the responsibility is that a consumer is supposed to
shoulder.
Consumer is at the core of business world in the present day economy.
Quantity and quality of goods are produced as per the needs of the
consumer. Advancement of any business unit depends on the satisfaction
of the consumer. That product will be in great demand which gives
maximum satisfaction to the consumer and so will be produced on large
scale. As a result, the concerned production unit will develop and earn
large profit. Despite the Fact that Importance of the consumer is widely
recognized, he is deprived of his rights and privilege and is subjected to
diverse kinds of exploitation. For instance, exploitation in the form of
short weight and measure poor quality of the product, adulteration,
supply of fake goods, boarding and black marketing of the goods,
delivery of goods not on schedule. Not only that, even doubtful and false
advertisements are indulged into by the producers to attract consumers.
With a view to protecting the consumers from such exploitation and
making them aware of their rights, a method of consumer protection has
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been launched. Need for protection arid satisfaction of the consumer is
now being widely recognized across the world. India has also adopted
the concept of consumer protection more seriously and vigorously.
Consumer Protection Act, 1986 is an important Act in the history of the
consumer movement in the country. The Act was made to provide for
the better protection and promotion of consumer rights through the
establishment of consumer councils and quasi-judicial machinery. It is
mile stone in the history of socio-economic legislation and directed
towards public welfare and public benefits.

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 BACKGROUND OF THE
CONSUMER PROTECTION BILL, 1986
In giving rights to others which belong to them, we give rights to
ourselves and to our country.
-- John F. Kennedy
The Modern Consumer Movement is said to be launched in the decade
of 70s by the U.S. President J. F. Kennedy. But Ralph Nadu of U.S.A.
is known as the father of Consumer Monarch. It was coined that
consumer is a king and has the rights to be informed and to be heard.
This movement directed to protect the consumer without any barrier.
Besides the movement, the laws on Consumer have been framed to
educate and create awareness amongst the general public, to define the
legal rights and to provide the legal remedies against the violation of
Consumer rights.
Consumers till lately, were neglected totally by the manufactures, traders
or businessmen. The producers and businessmen enjoyed a lot of
dominance over the customers. This situation grew more and more, as
lack of consumers accountability towards the manufacturers. Also that
was the period when no foreign competition prevailed in India, which
made the manufacturers finality for the consumers. Whenever the
instances of the right of consumers being practiced on foreign soils were
narrated, those just sounded like fairy tales to the Indians.
Now, the caveat emptor rule namely let the buyer beware in sale of
goods act 1930, sprout the root of consumer interest in consumer
protection. There were acts such as prevention of food adulteration act,
essential commodities act, drugs control act, etc. But these did not prove
to be sufficient. But day by day the consumers started becoming aware

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about their rights as a consumer were being crushed. The consumer is a
king, got recognition amongst the Indian people. Recognizing and
exercising the rights of the consumer, makes the producer more creative
and innovative. Producer had to then realize that the people are
becoming more aware and expect the full value for their money whether
he purchases tangible or intangible goods. Also a manufacturer taking
responsibility of any defective of deficient goods or services provided to
the consumer would cause a lot of improvement. All this would happen
only if along with educating the consumer, it was very important that
some inexpensive reliefs to be launched.
United Nations passed the resolution of consumer protection in April
1985. For consumer safety and protection from health hazards, it was
essential for this law to be present in developing countries. World over,
on 15th March World Consumer Rights Day is observed because on this
day in 1962 four consumer rights are given. Finally, in 1986 THE
CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT was enacted in India.

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 WHAT IS CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT,
1986?
A brand is nothing but an expression of the customers loyalty and trust.
Phil Dusenberry.
Consumer protection means the protection of the consumers from their
exploitation by the unfair trade practices of the producers/sellers. In fact,
providing proper protection of the fundamental rights and Interests of
the consumers, freeing them from exploitation, creating consumer
awareness, consumer providing the right to clean business environment
to the consumers by means of Legal amendments.
The Consumer Protection Act was passed by the Lok Sabha on 5th
December 1986 and Rajya Sabha on 10th December, 1986 and assented
to by the President of India on 24th December, 1986. The National
Consumer Rights Day is being observed on 24th of December every
year it is made enforceable by being printed in the Gazette of India.
Extra Part II: Section 1 dated 26.12.1986.and at PP 1-12 called, the
Consumer Protection Act, 1986 (Act No.66 of 1986) and the preamble
states that, An Act provide for better protection of the interest of the
consumers and for that purpose to make provisions for the
establishment of consumer councils and other authorities for the
settlement of consumers dispute and for matters connected
therewith.
Under the Act, consumer disputes redressal agencies have been set up
throughout the country with the District Forum at the District level, State
Commission at the State level and National Commission at national
level to provide simple, inexpensive and speedy justice to the consumer

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with complaints against defective goods, deficient services and unfair
and restrictive trade practices.
The Law relating to consumer protection in India is at recent origin and
is developing slowly, day by day, with the pronouncement of orders
passed by the commissions constituted under the Act all over India and
the National Commission. However, the presence of some protective
Laws for the benefits of consumer in the ancient culture cannot be
denied.
Consumer Protection Act, 1986become statutory umbrella which made
the consumer feel like a king. Consumer Protection Act, 1986not only
enhances the awareness and educate the consumer but also provide
compensation to them by summary and inexpensive proceedings. This
keeps manufacturer and the trader alert, creative and innovative.
In the era of free competition, market has become very dynamic and
margins have squeezes out. These gave rise to adopt other means/unfair
means or practices in execution of transactions, which resulted into
increased grievances at consumer front. Hence, the need for the
Consumer Protection Act has become more relevant than the past,
where monopoly was the key factor.

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 REASON FOR EXISTENCE OF
CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT, 1986
In order to maximize profits, many businessmen exploit consumers by
supplying poor quality goods at higher prices. They adopt unfair trade
practices such as adulteration, boarding, black-marketing, etc.
As a result, consumers do not get value for their money. Big business
houses use their power for private gain and to the detriment of
consumers. Consumers are exposed to physical, environmental and other
hazards. They need to be protected from spurious, duplicate and
adulterated products, pollution of air, water and noise, and misleading
advertising.
When we approach the market as a consumer, we expect value for
money, i.e., right quality, right quantity, right prices, information about
the mode of use, etc. But there may be instances where a consumer is
harassed or cheated. The Government understood the need to protect
consumers from unscrupulous suppliers, and several laws have been
made for this purpose.
Many a time, the imperfections on the supply side, like hoarding and
black marketing, mercilessly gouge the consumer. Hence, a socially
responsible producer should see to it that whatever is produced reaches
the ultimate consumer in time and at reasonable prices.
Secondly, the Government has to come to the rescue of the helpless
consumer to prevent him from being misled, duped, cheated and
exploited. It should also take special care of the vulnerable sections.
Governments should establish or maintain legal and or administrative
measures to enable or, as appropriate, relevant organizations to obtain
redress through formal or informal procedures that are expeditious, fair,

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inexpensive and accessible. Such procedures should take particular
account of the needs of low-income consumers.
Consumerism is a social force to make the business more honest,
efficient, responsive and responsible, and pressurize the government to
adopt the necessary measures to protect consumer interests by
guaranteeing their legitimate rights.
Consumers need protection due to the following reasons:

ILLITERACY AND IGNORANCE:

Consumers in India are mostly illiterate and ignorant. They do not
understand their rights. A system is required to protect them from
unscrupulous businessmen.
UNORGANIZED CONSUMERS:
In India consumers are widely dispersed and are not united. They
are at the mercy of businessmen. On the other hand, producers and
traders are organized and powerful.
SPURIOUS GOODS:
There is increasing supply of duplicate products. It is very difficult
for an ordinary consumer to distinguish between a genuine product
and its imitation. He pays the price for the original but gets a
substandard product. It is necessary to protect consumers from
such exploitation.

DECEPTIVE ADVERTISING:
Some businessmen give misleading information about quality,
safety and utility of products. Consumers are misled by false
advertisement and do not know the real quality of advertised
goods. A mechanism is needed to prevent misleading
advertisements.
MALPRACTICES OF BUSINESSMEN:

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 Fraudulent, unethical and monopolistic trade practices on the part
of businessmen lead to exploitation of consumers. Consumers
often get defective, inferior and substandard goods and poor
service. Certain measures are required to protect the consumers
against such malpractices. Greedy businessmen indulge in
adulteration, boarding, black-marketing and other illegal practices.
FREEDOM OF ENTERPRISE:
Businessmen must ensure satisfaction of consumers. In the long
run survival and growth of business is not possible without the
support and goodwill of consumers. If business does not protect
consumer's interests. Government intervention and regulatory
measures will grow to curb unfair trade practices.
These were the main reason why the Government make its mind to bring
in the Consumer Protection Bill, 1986. This Act is also bought to protect
Consumers of this country from the following:
Unsafe and harmful products,
Unfair trade practices,
False advertising,
Abuse of monopoly power,
Environmental pollution.

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 OBJECTIVES OF THE
CONSUMER PROTECTION BILL, 1986
The Indian Consumer Protection Act, 1986, is unique in many respects.
In no other country separate courts and tribunals have been established
for deciding consumer disputes. The Consumer Protection Act, 1986
provides for setting up of quasi-judicial bodies at district, state and
National level for redressal of consumer disputes. These quasi-judicial
bodies are required to observe the principles of Natural Justice and have
been empowered to give relief of a specific nature and to award
wherever appropriate, compensation to the consumer. Penalties for the
non-compliance with the orders given by the quasi-judicial bodies have
also been provided. The Act vests concurrent jurisdiction as enjoyed by
the established courts. Its object to provide inexpensive and speedy
justice to the consumer.
The Act is social, benefited oriented legislation. The filing of complaint
under Consumer Protection Act does not involve engaging the lawyer or
rushing to the Forum for the filing of the complaint. In fact, it can be
filed even by sending the same by registered post to the concerned
Forums.
In order to achieve this object, the Act provides for a simple procedure
for deciding cases. According to the preamble, the act is to provide for
the better protection of the interest of consumers and for that purpose to
make provisions of the establishment of consumers councils and others
authorities for the settlement of consumers interest herewith.
The provisions of the Act need to be interpreted in the favor of the
consumer to achieve the purpose of the enactment. Court must adopt a
constructive approach without doing violence to the language of the

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provisions and without producing a result contrary to the attempted
objectives of the enactment.
Section 6, of the spells out the following objects and charges the Central
Council with the responsibility of fulfilling these objects. The Section
says that objects of the Central Council shall to be promote and protect
the rights of the consumers listed under Section 6. Section 6 of the
Consumer Protection Act says:
The objects of the Central Council shall be to promote and protect the
rights of the consumers such as:
the right to be protected against marketing of goods and services
which arte hazardous to life and property;
the right to be informed about the quality, quality, potency, purity,
standard and price of the goods, or service as to protect the
consumers against the unfair trade practices;
the right to be assured, whenever possible, access to variety of
goods and service at competitive price;
the right to be hearted a to be assured that consumers interest will
receive sue consideration at appropriate forums;
the right to seek redressed against unfair trade practice or
restrictive trade practices or unscrupulous exploitation of
consumer; and
the right to consumer education.
These are the primary objectives given in the Act itself other than this
the other goals of are coming out with different judgements of the court
which will be a continuous process this also include recognition of
Rights of Consumers.

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 IMPORTANT AMENDMENTS IN ACT BY
CONSUMER PROTECTION (AMENDMENT)
ACT, 2002
Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by
drawbacks and discomforts.
-Arnold Bennett
When the Consumer Protection Act 1986 was put into operation, it was
thought that it would address all issues of consumer-related problems
and find solutions for these issues. The objective of the act was to
provide for the better protection of the interests of consumers and for
that purpose to make provision for the establishment of consumer
councils and other authorities for the settlement of consumer disputes
and for matters concerned therewith. However, the general perception
was that the act was ineffective and the objectives remained mainly
unfulfilled.
With a view to achieve the goal of speedy justice to the consumer, to
remove the lacunae, to streamlining the procedures and to make the
provisions of the Act more effective, the Consumer Protection
(Amendment) Bill, 2001 was introduced in the Rajya Sabha on 26th
April 2001. After certain amendments the Consumer Protection
(Amendment) Bill, 2002 was passed by the Rajya Sabha at its sitting
held on 11th March, 2002 and was referred to the Lok Sabha. At its
sitting held on 30th July 2002, the Lok Sabha passed it with certain
amendments.
The provisions of the Amended Act of 2002 was bought into force w.e.f.
15th March, 2003.

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2002 Amendments and have plugged many loopholes by their
progressive wording. These provisions brought about by the amendment
have gone a long way in doing away the perennial problems of delay.
The amendment gives more teeth to the act. The main changes
introduced by the Amendment Act are as follows:
In Section 2(1)(b)- the word complainant includes the legal heir or
representative in case of death of a consumer or the opposite party.
Another consumer-friendly change that was provided by the
Amendment Act concerns the setting up of benches and increasing
the number of members in the National and State Commissions. If
the number of cases is large, additional benches can be created that
can operate at places other than their original headquarters.
To facilitate uninterrupted selection and filling up of vacancies of
members of the State Commission, president and members of the
District Forums, the selection committee has been changed by
making a sitting judge of the High Court to preside over it, when
the president of the State Commission is absent.
In case of absence of the incumbent president of the District
Forum, State Commission or National Commission, a provision
introduced in the Amendment Act empowers the senior member to
act as president of the respective bodies.
Unfair trade practices include the sale of spurious goods or
services and service problem.
In the original Act, the District Consumer Redressal Forums could
deal with complaints involving compensation amount up to INR
5,00,000 while for the State Commission the limit was fixed at
INR 2 million. These amounts were hiked to INR 2 million and
INR 10 million, respectively. For the National Commission, the
limit which previously was INR 2 million, has now been enhanced
to more than INR 10 million.

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 Under the Amendment Act, minimum qualifications have been
prescribed for members of all consumer courts.
For procedures such as admission of complaints, issue of notices
and disposal of complaints a specific time frame (21 days for the
admissibility of a complaint) has been prescribed under the
Amendment Act. The act also prohibits adjournment during the
course of hearing of the case.
Another improvement effected now is the exclusion of services
used for commercial purposes from the purview of consumer
courts, which can now concentrate on providing relief to individual
consumers.
The courts can now issue interim orders. Under the Amendment
Act, the court can award punitive damages.
Any affected party which appeals against the order of the forum,
has to deposit 50 per cent of the amount awarded to the consumer.
Further, if any person fails to pay compensation, the consumer
court can order recovery in the same manner as arrears of land
revenue.

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 CONCLUSION & ANALYSIS
Awareness without action is worthless.
--Phil McGraw
Undoubtedly Consumer Protection Act is benevolent piece social
legislation, which protects large number of consumers from exploitation.
The people in this country are very much aware that consumer courts are
helping the needy and delivering speedy justice to them. The consumer
courts are less expensive. People have now started feeling that they are
in a position to declare Sellers be aware, whereas earlier consumers
were at the receiving end and were told Buyers beware.
The most important feature of the Act is the provision for setting up
three-tier quasi-judicial machinery popularly known as "consumer
courts" at national, state and district levels. The apex court, National
Commission functions in Delhi. Every State Government has a State
Commission. The third tier is in each district and is called district forum.
As on January 1999, there are 543 district fora. All these courts have
handled nearly 13 lakh cases of which about 10 lakhs cases have been
disposed of. The disposal of 77 per cent of the cases is not a mean
achievement. However, it should be noted that only 27 per cent of the
total cases have been disposed of within the prescribed period of 90 days
or 150 days (where testing is required). This fact really causes concern
for the Government and the consumers in general. The National
Commission has identified the reasons for the slow disposal and have
come out with suggestions for amending the Act with a view to
improving the disposal rate within the time limit prescribed in the Act.
The Government has been contemplating a number of amendments to
the Act and these amendments will be brought out in the next session of
Parliament.

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Consumer is sovereign and Customer is the king are nothing more
than myths in the present scenario particularly in the developing
societies. However, it has been realized and rightly so that the consumer
protection is a socio-economic program to be pursued by the
government as well as the business as the satisfaction of the consumers
is in the interest of both. In this context, the government, however, has a
primary responsibility to protect the consumers interests and rights
through appropriate policy measures, legal structure and administrative
framework.
The efficient and effective program of Consumer Protection is of special
significance to all of us because we all are consumers. Even a
manufacturer to provider of a service is a consumer of some other goods
or services. If both the producers/providers and consumers realize the
need for co-existence, adulterated products, fake goods and other
deficiencies in services would become a thing of the past. The active
involvement and participation from all quarters i.e. the central and state
governments, the educational Institutions, the NGOs, the print and
electronic media and the adoption and observance of a voluntary code of
conduct by the trade and industry and the citizens charter by the service
providers is necessary to see that the consumers get their due. The need
of the hour is for total commitment to the consumer cause and social
responsiveness to consumer needs. This should, however, proceed in a
harmonious manner so that our society becomes a better place for all of
us to live in.

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