Question

Composition , jurisdiction and procedure of state commission

Answer 1

The year 1986 is a Magna Cartain the history of Consumerism. It was this year that witnessed the enactment of the Consumer Protection Act. The first ever legislation in India of its kind which solely aimed at the grief staken consumers who the victims of the unfair trade practices and substandard services rendered to them. The preamble to this Act reads as follows: An Act to provide for better protection of the interests of the consumers and to make provisions for the establishment of consumer councils and other authorities for the settlement of consumers disputes and for matter connected therewith. Thus the preamble to this Act makes the intention of the framers of this Act crystal clear.

The setting up of the dispute redressal machinery was only to secure and enable speedy justice to the aggrieved consumers. The enactment of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986, a milestone in the history of socio-economic legislation in India, has considerably consolidated the process of consumer protection and has given rise, during the past few years, to new consumer jurisprudence. The act introduced a three-tier quasi-judicial consumer disputes redressal mechanism at the district, state and national level for dispensing inexpensive and time-bound consumer justice. Though passed in 1986, its effective implementation started only in 1990 when the institutions envisaged under the act were established throughout the country, thereby enabling a large number of consumers and organisations to approach these forums for the redressal of their grievances.