Lok Sabha Question No. 1389 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2024-12-04
Subject: Pending Matters before Consumer Forums
Ministry: CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD AND PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION
Asked by: Shri Krishna Prasad Tenneti

## Government of India Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution

## Department of Consumer Affairs

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1389 TO BE ANSWERED ON 04.12.2024

## PENDING MATTERS BEFORE CONSUMER FORUMS

1389.  SHRI KRISHNA PRASAD TENNETI:

## Will  the  Minister  of CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD AND PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION miHkksDrk ekeys] [kk| vkSj lkoZtfud forj.k ea=h be pleased to state :

- (a) the details regarding the total number of matters pending before consumer forums (District, State and National) across the country during the last five years, State-wise especially in Andhra Pradesh;
- (b) the details regarding the average duration of pendency of matters before consumers forums, Statewise especially in Andhra Pradesh;
- (c) the details regarding the total number of vacancies at consumer forums (District, State and National) across the country, State-wise especially in Andhra Pradesh;
- (d) the  details  regarding  the  total  funds  allocated  and  utilised  for  the  purposes  of  consumer  forums across country especially in Andhra Pradesh; and
- (e) the  details  regarding  the  steps  undertaken  by  the  Government  to  reduce  the  pendency  of  matters before consumer forums at various levels especially in Andhra Pradesh?

## ANSWER

## miHkksDrk ekeys] [kk| vkSj lkoZtfud forj.k jkT; ea=h (श्री बी.एल. वर्मा )

## THE MINISTER OF STATE CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD AND PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION (SHRI B.L. VERMA)

- (a) : The  details  of  number  of  cases  pending  before  National  Consumer  Disputes  Redressal Commission, State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission and District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission across the country during the last five years is placed at Annexure-I .
- (b) & (e)  : The  Consumer  Protection  Act,  2019  provides  for  a  three  tier  quasi-judicial  machinery  at District,  State  and  Central  levels  commonly  known  as  'Consumer  Commissions'  for  protection  of  the rights of consumers and to provide simple and speedy redressal of consumer disputes.

Further, in terms of Section 38 (7) of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, every complaint shall be disposed  of  as  expeditiously  as  possible  and  endeavour  shall  be  made  to  decide  the  complaint  within  a period of three months from the date of receipt of notice by opposite party where the complaint does not require  analysis  or  testing  of  commodities  and  within  five  months  if  it  requires  analysis  or  testing  of commodities.

To serve the interest of speedy justice to the end consumers, Consumer Protection Act states that no adjournment shall ordinarily be granted by the consumer commissions unless sufficient cause is shown and the reasons for grant of adjournment have been recorded in writing by the Commission.

In  order  to  reduce  pendency,  both  State  Consumer  Disputes  Redressal  Commissions  and  District Consumer  Disputes  Redressal  Commissions  participated  in  the  Grahak  Madhyasthata  Samadhan  and National Lok Adalats to resolve consumer disputes through mediation for providing speedy and amicable resolutions to consumer grievances.

In  addition,  e-dakhil  portal  has  also  been  launched  for  online  filing  of  consumer  complaints.  Besides physical hearing, video conferencing facility has also been provided at National and State level Consumer Commissions for speedy disposal of the cases.

- (c) : The state-wise details of the number of vacancies in National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission and District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission across the country is at Annexure-II .
- (d) : Under the 'Strengthening of Consumer Commissions (SCC)' scheme, the Central Government  provides  assistance  to  states/U.Ts  for  the  strengthening  of  infrastructure  of  Consumer Commissions located in respective States/U.Ts.

Since 1995, a total of ₹272.52 Crore (as on 29.11.2024) has been released to various states/U.Ts across the country for the strengthening of infrastructure of Consumer Commission situated in respective states/U.Ts, out of which the Government has received Utilization Certificates (U.Cs) of ₹242.81 Crore.

An amount of ₹10.69 Crore has been released to the Govt. of Andhra Pradesh for the strengthening of Consumer Commissions out of which U.Cs amounting to ₹9.75 Crore have been received.

*****

## ANNEXURE  REFERRED  IN  REPLY  TO  PART  (A)  OF  THE  LOK  SABHA  UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1389 FOR 04.12.2024 REGARDING PENDENCY OF CONSUMER CASES.

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## PENDENCY OF CONSUMER CASES

|   Sr No | Commission   |   Previous pending as on 31.12.2019 |   Number of cases filed during last five years (including restored cases) (01.01.2020-31.10.2024) |   Number of cases disposed during last five years (01.01.2020- 31.10.2024) |   Pendency as on 31.10.2024 |
|---------|--------------|-------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------|
|       1 | NCDRC        |                               21343 |                                                                                             18954 |                                                                      22081 |                       18216 |

|   Sr No | Commission (SCDRC+DCDRC)                 |   Previous pending as on 31.12.2019 |   Number of cases filed during last five years (including restored cases) (01.01.2020-31.10.2024) |   Number of cases disposed during last five years (01.01.2020- 31.10.2024) |   Pendency as on 31.10.2024 |
|---------|------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------|
|       1 | Andaman Nicobar                          |                                  47 |                                                                                                94 |                                                                         82 |                          59 |
|       2 | Andhra Pradesh                           |                                4253 |                                                                                             11819 |                                                                      10930 |                        5142 |
|       3 | Arunachal Pradesh                        |                                  10 |                                                                                               124 |                                                                         87 |                          47 |
|       4 | Assam                                    |                                1902 |                                                                                              2207 |                                                                       2021 |                        2088 |
|       5 | Bihar                                    |                               17436 |                                                                                             17885 |                                                                      12301 |                       23020 |
|       6 | Chandigarh                               |                                1954 |                                                                                              9241 |                                                                       8141 |                        3054 |
|       7 | Chhattisgarh                             |                                7866 |                                                                                             16066 |                                                                      15891 |                        8041 |
|       8 | Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu |                                  10 |                                                                                                65 |                                                                          2 |                          73 |
|       9 | Delhi                                    |                               23350 |                                                                                             23726 |                                                                      23441 |                       23635 |
|      10 | Goa                                      |                                 324 |                                                                                              1097 |                                                                       1072 |                         349 |
|      11 | Gujarat                                  |                               27203 |                                                                                             73398 |                                                                      60313 |                       40288 |
|      12 | Haryana                                  |                               14790 |                                                                                             56275 |                                                                      36968 |                       34097 |
|      13 | Himachal Pradesh                         |                                2940 |                                                                                              8767 |                                                                       7320 |                        4387 |
|      14 | Jammu and Kashmir                        |                                2743 |                                                                                                44 |                                                                        116 |                        2671 |
|      15 | Jharkhand                                |                                5239 |                                                                                              5908 |                                                                       5533 |                        5614 |
|      16 | Karnataka                                |                               20515 |                                                                                             44728 |                                                                      47555 |                       17688 |
|      17 | Kerala                                   |                               16279 |                                                                                             34212 |                                                                      25994 |                       24497 |
|      18 | Lakshadweep                              |                                  27 |                                                                                                 6 |                                                                          2 |                          31 |
|      19 | Madhya Pradesh                           |                               34387 |                                                                                             69020 |                                                                      67790 |                       35617 |
|      20 | Maharashtra                              |                               49136 |                                                                                             89331 |                                                                      55759 |                       82708 |
|      21 | Manipur                                  |                                  77 |                                                                                               243 |                                                                        188 |                         132 |
|      22 | Meghalaya                                |                                 187 |                                                                                               245 |                                                                        320 |                         112 |
|      23 | Mizoram                                  |                                 169 |                                                                                               311 |                                                                        412 |                          68 |
|      24 | Nagaland                                 |                                  35 |                                                                                                58 |                                                                         33 |                          60 |

|   25 | Odisha        |   15434 |   21411 |   20699 |   16146 |
|------|---------------|---------|---------|---------|---------|
|   26 | Puducherry    |     305 |     348 |     362 |     291 |
|   27 | Punjab        |   12461 |   39158 |   34616 |   17003 |
|   28 | Rajasthan     |   36903 |   64858 |   50330 |   51431 |
|   29 | Sikkim        |      35 |     111 |      91 |      55 |
|   30 | Tamil Nadu    |   12078 |   25092 |   28018 |    9152 |
|   31 | Telangana     |    8218 |   18102 |   18216 |    8104 |
|   32 | Tripura       |     142 |    1374 |    1284 |     232 |
|   33 | Uttar Pradesh |   94067 |   85312 |   88273 |   91106 |
|   34 | Uttarakhand   |    3901 |    7304 |    6280 |    4925 |
|   35 | West Bengal   |   12906 |   25643 |   21676 |   16873 |

*****

## ANNEXURE  REFERRED  IN  REPLY  TO  PART  (c)  OF  THE  LOK  SABHA  UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1389 FOR 04.12.2024 REGARDING VACANT POSTS IN CONSUMER COURTS.

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## VACANCY POSITION IN CONSUMER COMMISSIONS

|   S. No. | Commission   |   President Vacancy |   Member Vacancy |
|----------|--------------|---------------------|------------------|
|        1 | NCDRC        |                   0 |                1 |

| S. No          | State/UT Commission     | State/UT Commission Vacancy   | State/UT Commission Vacancy   | District Commission Vacancy   | District Commission Vacancy   |
|----------------|-------------------------|-------------------------------|-------------------------------|-------------------------------|-------------------------------|
|                |                         | President                     | Member                        | President                     | Member                        |
| 1              | A&N Island (UT)         | 1                             | 0                             | 0                             | 2                             |
| 2              | Andhra Pradesh          | 1                             | 1                             | 1                             | 1                             |
| 3              | Arunachal Pradesh       | 1                             | 2                             | 0                             | 41                            |
| 4              | Assam                   | 0                             | 1                             | 3                             | 3                             |
| 5              | Bihar                   | 0                             | 0                             | 17                            | 38                            |
| 6              | Chandigarh (UT)         | 0                             | 1                             | 0                             | 1                             |
| 7              | Chhattisgarh            | 0                             | 3                             | 7                             | 17                            |
| 8              | D&N Haveli and D&D (UT) | 1                             | 2                             | 1                             | 1                             |
| 9              | Delhi (UT)              | 0                             | 1                             | 1                             | 4                             |
| 10             | Goa                     | 1                             | 2                             | 0                             | 0                             |
| 11             | Gujarat                 | 0                             | 3                             | 22                            | 46                            |
| 12             | J&K (UT)                | 1                             | 1                             | 6                             | 10                            |
| 13             | Kerala                  | 0                             | 2                             | 0                             | 4                             |
| 14             | Ladakh (UT)             | 1                             | 2                             | 2                             | 3                             |
| 15             | Lakshadweep (UT)        | 0                             | 0                             | 0                             | 0                             |
| 16             | Haryana                 | 0                             | 0                             | 2                             | 7                             |
| 17             | Himachal Pradesh        | 0                             | 2                             | 0                             | 15                            |
| 18             | Jharkhand               | 1                             | 3                             | 6                             | 13                            |
| 19             | Karnataka               | 1                             | 6                             | 10                            | 12                            |
| 20             | Madhya Pradesh          | 1                             | 2                             | 4                             | 32                            |
| 21             | Maharashtra             | 0                             | 2                             | 9                             | 20                            |
| 22             | Manipur                 | 1                             | 1                             | 0                             | 0                             |
| 23             | Meghalaya               | 0                             | 3                             | 0                             | 1                             |
| 24             | Mizoram                 | 1                             | 1                             | 0                             | 4                             |
| 25             | Nagaland                | 0                             | 1                             | 0                             | 10                            |
| 26             | Odisha                  | 1                             | 0                             | 16                            | 44                            |
| 27             | Puducherry (UT)         | 1                             | 2                             | 0                             | 0                             |
| 28             | Punjab                  | 0                             | 1                             | 4                             | 13                            |
| 29             | Rajasthan               | 0                             | 2                             | 11                            | 25                            |
| 30             | Sikkim                  | 1                             | 2                             | 0                             | 3                             |
| 31             | Tamilnadu               | 0                             | 4                             | 2                             | 15                            |
| 32             | Telangana               | 1                             | 0                             | 3                             | 3                             |
| 33             | Tripura                 | 0                             | 0                             | 0                             | 2                             |
| 34             | Uttarakhand             | 1                             | 0                             | 9                             | 1                             |
| 35             | Uttar Pradesh           | 0                             | 1                             | 18                            | 25                            |
| 36             | West Bengal             | 0                             | 5                             | 17                            | 16                            |
| State/UT Total | State/UT Total          | 17                            | 59                            | 171                           | 432                           |