Allow online filing of consumer complaints

If you look at the promotional messages that the Consumer Affairs department puts out, you may imagine that filing a consumer complaint is as simple as jotting down your grievance, attaching a bill and presto, you're empowered! That an aggrieved consumer doesn't need an advocate and can appear as party-in-person may add to the euphoria. Take a reality check. Even for seasoned consumer  lawyers, navigating the procedural maze and grappling with compliance nit picking is not smooth sailing.

Consider the cumbersome paper work. While filing a complaint, you need a Vakalatnama signed by the client and the counsel, attested by another advocate or a notary public, with stamps stuck on it, the complaint in 2 or 3 sets depending on the number of members on the bench in the forum or commission and the number of opposite parties, a list of the documents enclosed, an index with at least 3 sets of photocopies of all the documents, dockets for the complaint and typed set of documents, a stamped envelope and a demand draft with the nominal fee prescribed. In States like Tamil Nadu, the complaint must be typed with double spacing on legal size green sheets on both sides with page numbers. The complainant must sign on every page.

Before the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, you need a Vakalatnama, the complaint with sub headings like the gist of the matter, pecuniary jurisdiction, limitation, cause of action, prayer and so on, an affidavit, a list of dates and events, a memo of the parties to the dispute, the paper book with an index and the documents typed on legal size white paper in 14 point font with double spacing, proper margins and pagination and a demand draft.

If the complainant is a minor or based abroad or in a different State and needs to be represented by someone else in the district forum or State or National Commission, a Power of Attorney is required. And if the complaint is filed beyond 2 years from the origin of the dispute, termed 'cause of action', add an application for condonation of delay.

That was for the initial filing, after which you need to cross your fingers and hope that the registry finds it in order. If not, it will be returned to you for compliance, the way a teacher corrects an answer script and sends it back for corrections!

We are not done yet! The Opposite Party will have to file its Written Version. The Complainant may need to file a Rejoinder. Both sides will then have to file their Proof Affidavits marking all the documents they produced with the Complaint or Written Version. If additional documents not mentioned earlier are to be taken into account, that will need a separate petition. The Opposite Side can oppose this with a Counter. Arguments will take place and the Petition will be either allowed or dismissed. If allowed, the applicant will have to formally mark them with an Additional Proof Affidavit. In medical negligence cases, doctors who give their Medical Opinion can be cross examined or be sent Written Interrogatories. The Opposite side then files a Response to the Interrogatories. Finally, both sides file Written Arguments followed by Oral Arguments.

Orders are then passed, post which an application must be made for Certified Copies. An Appeal, if aggrieved by the Order, or an Execution Petition, if it is not complied with, may be filed. Phew! Imagine the mountains of paper used for all this.

This procedural nightmare, flowing from a rigid application of portions of the Code of Civil Procedure, is an important cause of  the delay in resolution of consumer disputes. Clause 26 of the Consumer Protection Regulations, 2005, seems to have been forgotten. Sub clause (1) clearly states that "in all proceedings before the Consumer Forum, an endeavour shall be made by the parties and their counsel to avoid the use of provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908." Sub clause (2) aims for "steps for computerisation and networking." Clearly, that cannot be restricted to online cause lists and case status. Why not simplify the whole procedure and allow a one time online filing of all documents followed by oral arguments?  

Isn't it disappointing that the Consumer Protection Bill, 2018, pending a Rajya Sabha nod, that drastically increases the pecuniary jurisdiction of the three tier apparatus, is silent on simplifying procedures, starting with online filing? The 2011 Bill had a provision for online filing but it sadly lapsed. Law cannot be static and must evolve. Lawyers today get case laws through sites like manupatra, supreme court cases online or indian kanoon. Those thick bound volumes are slowly becoming a thing of the past, sometimes as showpieces in chambers!

The higher judiciary has consistently leaned in favour of eschewing "a hyper-technical approach" in consumer cases.  The Supreme Court in General Motors Vs Ashok Ramnik Lal Tolat observed that "having regard to the laudable object of the social legislation to protect the interest of consumers, a liberal and purposive interpretation" of the statute is needed. The Apex Court in Sangram Singh Vs Election Tribunal, Kotah, did some plainspeaking on the Civil Procedure Code. "It is designed to facilitate justice and further its ends: not a penal enactment for punishment and penalties; not a thing designed to trip people up." The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission in Sheela Ohri Vs Bajaj Allianz General Insurance reminded us that consumer fora and commissions "may have all the trappings of Civil Courts but yet they cannot be called civil courts."

These bodies are bound only by the principles of natural justice. If our law makers do not simplify procedures, the average consumer may lose faith in this beneficial legislation.

(The writer is an advocate at the Madras high court, columnist & author)