Despite a prescribed time frame,of three months,for cases to be cleared by the consumer courts,the number of cases disposed off within the time limit remains low. While the UT Consumer Courts have cleared a large number of cases since their inception,less than 60 per cent of them have been disposed off in three months,with some lingering on for nearly eight years. As per the statistics for the last quarter till June,the total number of cases filed,since their inception,is 11,920 in the commission and 45,599 in the forum. Though,the number of cases cleared,since inception,is as high as 98.36 percent in the commission and 97.52 in the forum,the number of cases disposed within the prescribed time is 6,799 in the commission and 17,383 in the forum. A detailed break-up of the performance of the courts reveals that,between April and June,while the commission disposed 11,725 cases and the forum 44,469,yet only 58 per cent ( 6,799) of them, in the commission and 39 per cent (17,383) in the forum were cleared within the prescribed time limit. The parties ask for an extension to submit their replies and we have to give them as our duty is to give all the parties an opportunity to reply and not just to deliver a penalty without giving everyone a fair chance of representation, said the president of the UT Consumer Disputed Redressal Commission,Justice Sham Sunder. The pending cases are further classified on the time they have spent in litigation. In the commission,the number of cases pending for up to one year are 77,while in the forum,it is 727. Five cases have been pending for nearly two years in the commission and 211 in the for a,while seven cases have been pending for nearly five years in the commission and 23 in the forum. There is,however,no case that has lasted for more than five years in the commission,but there are three such cases in the fora. The Consumer Protection Act states that it is the courts prerogative to hear a case as expeditiously as possible and make an endeavour to dispose it off within a period of ninety days from the date of its admission.
