Lok Sabha Question No. 1799 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-12-13
Subject: Objectives of Consumer Protection Programme
Ministry: CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD AND PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION
Asked by: Guman Singh Damor

## Government of India

## Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Department of Consumer Affairs

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1799 (OIH)

TO BE ANSWERED ON 13.12.2023

## OBJECTIVES OF CONSUMER PROTECTION PROGRAMME

1799. SHRI GUMAN SINGH DAMOR: (OIH)

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

- (a) the main objectives of consumer protection programme;
- (b) the  acts  and  regulations  applicable  for  consumer  protection  and  action  taken  in  Madhya Pradesh under these Acts and Regulations during the last three years;
- (c) the procedure through which purity of gold and silver jewellery checked and the places where testing laboratories are located;
- (d) the details of steps taken to prevent adulteration in gold and silver ornaments; and
- (e) the details of action taken to curb unfair trade practices in tribal dominated areas of Sailana, Bajna, Thandala, Meghnagar, Petlawad, Rama, Jhabua, Ranapur, Jobat, Udaipur, Chandrashekhar  Azad  Nagar,  Kattiwada,  Alirajpur  and  Sondwa  development  blocks  under Ratlam Lok Sabha constituency?

## ANSWER

## miHkksDrk ekeys] [kk| vkSj lkoZtfud forj.k jkT; ea=h ( श्री अश्विनी कु मार चौबे )

## THE MINISTER OF STATE CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD AND PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION (SHRI ASHWINI KUMAR CHOUBEY)

(a)   :   Department  of  Consumer  Affairs  is  continuously  working  for  consumer  protection  and empowerment of consumers by enactment of progressive legislations. With a view to modernize the framework  governing  the  consumer  protection  in  the  new  era  of  globalization,  technologies,  ecommerce markets etc  Consumer Protection  Act,  1986  was  repealed  and  Consumer  Protection  Act 2019 was enacted.

The  Consumer  Protection  Act,  2019  provides  for  redressal  of  the  grievances  of  consumer through specialized three-tier quasi-judicial agencies, now commonly known as 'National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commissions (NCDRC)' at National level, 'State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (SCDRC)' at State level, and 'District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission(DCDRC)' at District level.

The Act also provides for, inter-alia, simplification of the adjudication process in the Consumer Commissions; filing of a complaint by a consumer in the Consumer Commission having jurisdiction with respect to his place of work/residence irrespective of place of transaction and place of business or residence  of  the  opposite  parties,  e-filing  and  e-payment,  video  conferencing  for  hearing,  deemed admissibility  of  complaints  if  admissibility  is  not  decided  within  21  days  of  filing;  mediation  to facilitate early disposal of cases; provision of product liability.

Provision  for  filing  cases  online  through  e-Daakhil  has  been  introduced  in  NCDRC  and Consumer  Commissions  of  35  States/UTs  at  the  district  and  state  level  for  speedy  and  hassle-free resolution of cases.

Section 38(7) of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 prescribes that 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.

Department of Consumer Affairs has notified 17 Rules and 6 Regulations under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 for the protection of rights and interests of consumers which, inter-alia, includes E-Commerce Rules, Direct Selling Rules, Mediation Rules, Search and Seizure and Compounding of offences by the Central Authority and Crediting of Penalty Rules etc.

Government has taken also taken several initiatives recently for the protection of consumers from  misleading  and  deceptive  advertisements,  fake  reviews,  and  unfair  trade  practices.  Under  the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has been established w.e.f 24.07.2020 to regulate matters relating to violation of rights of consumers, unfair trade practices and false or misleading advertisements which are prejudicial to the interests of public and consumers as a class.

The  CCPA  has  notified  the  Guidelines  for  Prevention  of  Misleading  Advertisements  and Endorsements  for  Misleading  Advertisements,  2022  on  9th  June,  2022.  These  guidelines  inter-alia provide for; (a) conditions for an advertisement to be non-misleading and valid; (b) certain stipulations in  respect  of  bait  advertisements  and  free  claim  advertisements;  and,  (c)  duties  of  manufacturer, service provider, advertiser and advertising agency.

The  Central  Consumer  Protection  Authority  has  also  issued  'Guidelines  for  Prevention  and Regulation of Dark Patterns, 2023' on 30th November, 2023 for prevention and regulation of dark patterns listing 13 specified dark patterns.

The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has notified framework on 'Online Consumer Reviews - Principles and Requirements for their Collection, Moderation and Publication' on 23.11.2022 for safeguarding and protecting consumer interest from fake and deceptive reviews in e-commerce. The standards  are  voluntary  and  are  applicable  to  every  online  platform  which  publishes  consumer reviews. The guiding principles of the standard are integrity, accuracy, privacy, security, transparency, accessibility and responsiveness.

The Department has revamped, the National Consumer Helpline (NCH) which has emerged as a single point of access to consumers across the country for grievance redressal at pre-litigation stage. Consumers can register their grievances from all over the country in 17 languages through a toll-free number  1915.  These  grievances  can  be  registered  on  Integrated  Grievance  Redressal  Mechanism (INGRAM), an omni channel IT enabled central portal, through various channels- Whats App, SMS , mail , NCH app, web portal, Umang app as  per their convenience.

This helpline works in a dedicated manner from 8 AM to 8 PM on all seven days of the week except  national  holidays.  For  this  purpose,  an  exclusive  call  centre  has  been  established  and  to facilitate increase of access to our consumers, callback facility is also available from 8 PM to 8 AM. Further, NCH has also partnered with prominent stakeholders, namely- private companies, regulators, ombudsman government agencies to bring them altogether on a single online IT platform where in all grievances are collated in a central repository with unique docket numbers.

The Department is also implementing an exclusive scheme namely 'Consumer Awareness' to generate  consumer  awareness  and  empower  the  consumers  under  the  aegis  of  'Jago  Grahak  Jago' campaign through various media including electronic, outdoor and social media.

The Department in 2022-23 has launched 'Jagriti', a mascot for empowering consumers and generating awareness of their rights.  Jagriti is projected as an empowered young consumer.

The Department participates in prominent fairs/festivals/events where a large number of people may  congregate.  The  Department  also  releases  grant-in-aid  to  various  States/UTs  for  generating awareness at local level.

(b) :  Under the provision of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 and Rules, during the last three years, number of cases registered and disposed in Madhya Pradesh is as follows:

| Year                  | State Commission   | State Commission   | District Commission   | District Commission   |
|-----------------------|--------------------|--------------------|-----------------------|-----------------------|
|                       | Filed              | Disposed           | Filed                 | Disposed              |
| 2020                  | 933                | 902                | 11896                 | 4385                  |
| 2021                  | 643                | 1279               | 16791                 | 7835                  |
| 2022                  | 1419               | 3829               | 14872                 | 17305                 |
| 2023 (Upto Nov, 2023) | 1842               | 2927               | 8869                  | 13336                 |

(c) :  Purity of gold jewellery/artefacts are tested through fire assaying as per Indian Standard IS 1418 'Determination  of  gold  in  gold  bullion,  gold  alloys  and  gold  jewellery/artefacts  -  Cupellation  (fire assay)  method'  while  purity  of  silver  jewellery/artefacts  are  tested  through  assaying  as  per  Indian Standard 2113 'Assaying Silver in Silver and Silver alloys - Methods' Testing and marking of gold and silver jewellery and artefacts are carried out by testing laboratories recognised by BIS as Assaying and  Hallmarking  Centres  (AHCs).  Recognition  is  given  to  these  laboratories  by  verifying  their infrastructure and competence of its personnel as per IS 15820 'General requirements for establishment  and  operation  of  Assaying  and  Hallmarking  Centres'.  The  list  of  Assaying  and Hallmarking centers is available on BIS website (www.bis.gov.in).

(d) :  In order to ensure that the purity of a hallmarked article is as per declared and marked purity as well as that testing and hallmarking of gold and silver jewellery/artefacts have been carried out only after following complete testing procedures, regular market surveillance of jewellers and surveillance audits of AHCs are carried out by BIS.

During  market  surveillance  of  jewelers,  samples  of  hallmarked  jewellery  are  drawn  from registered jeweller outlet and are sent to BIS referral assay laboratories for testing their purity against declared and marked fineness. Suitable actions are taken against jewellers as well as AHC which had hallmarked the article in cases of failure as per Hallmarking Guidelines.

Number of market surveillance of jewellers and surveillance audits carried out during last 5 years are given below:

| Year                      |   Market samples drawn from jewellers |   Surveillance audits of AHCs |
|---------------------------|---------------------------------------|-------------------------------|
| 2018-19                   |                                  5750 |                           420 |
| 2019-20                   |                                  5512 |                           436 |
| 2020-21                   |                                   356 |                           111 |
| 2021-22                   |                                 12995 |                          2641 |
| 2022-23                   |                                 38846 |                           979 |
| 2023-24 (till 08.12.2023) |                                 25359 |                           365 |

- (e)  :  Since  inception,  consumer  cases  filed  and  disposed  in  Ratlam  and  Jhabua  District  Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission are as under:

| Jhabua   | Jhabua   | Ratlam   | Ratlam   |
|----------|----------|----------|----------|
| Filed    | Disposed | Filed    | Disposed |
| 386      | 266      | 2449     | 2140     |

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