‘Political differences delaying appointments in consumer forums’

With thousands of petitions pending and only three of the 14 consumer courts in the state functional,Express takes a look at three interesting pending cases at Ernakulam District Consumer Court

KOCHI: Activists blame political differences within the ruling front for undue delay in appointing presidents and members of District Consumer Dispute Redressal Forums.

Former Alappuzha District Consumer Dispute Redressal Forum member Thankachan Vazhachira said the Alappuzha forum has been dysfunctional since March 2018 as the vacant posts have not been filled. Kollam forum president has the additional charge of Alappuzha. Following this, functioning of both forums has been crippled.

It is due to differences between the CPM and the CPI the government has not finalised the names in many forums, he said. The whole purpose of segregating consumer disputes and having a specialised forum exclusively dealing with them was to ensure that a consumer does not have to wait endlessly for justice.

However, since October 2018, the Consumer Dispute Redressal Forums, including the State Commission, has had no sittings. The members have completed their five-year tenure and vacated office. But the process of roping in new members has not been completed so far, said D B Binu, RTI activist.

“The pendency rate in Kerala was amongst the lowest and best in the country at 5.2 per cent in 2017. This has since drastically increased in the past two years,” he said.

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