Lok Sabha Question No. 4320 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-03-26
Subject: Consumer Dispute Redressal Commissions
Ministry: CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD AND PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION
Asked by: Shri Rajesh Verma, Smt. Shambhavi, Shri Ravindra Dattaram Waikar, Shri Naresh Ganpat Mhaske

## Government of India

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

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 4320 TO BE ANSWERED ON 26.03.2025

## CONSUMER DISPUTE REDRESSAL COMMISSIONS

4320.  SHRI RAVINDRA DATTARAM WAIKAR: SHRI NARESH GANPAT MHASKE: SMT. SHAMBHAVI:

SHRI RAJESH VERMA:

## Will the Minister of CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD AND PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION be pleased to state:

- (a) the details of the district, State and national level Consumer Dispute Redressal Commissions which are currently functional in the country, State-wise;
- (b) the details of the consumer complaints filed, investigated and resolved since 2020, Statewise and year-wise;
- (c) the measures taken by the Government to expedite the resolution of pending cases in consumer courts;
- (d) the steps taken by the Government to strengthen consumer courts under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019;
- (e) the steps taken by the Government to increase awareness about consumer courts and the rights of consumers; and
- (f) whether the Government is considering to increase the number of consumer courts to handle rising consumer complaints efficiently in the next five years and if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF STATE

## CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD AND PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION (SHRI B.L. VERMA)

(a)  to  (f)  :    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, e-commerce markets etc. Consumer Protection Act, 1986 was repealed and Consumer Protection Act, 2019 was enacted.

Salient features of the new Consumer Protection Act, 2019 are establishment of a Central Consumer Protection Authority(CCPA); simplification of the adjudication process in the Consumer Commissions such as  enhancing  pecuniary  jurisdiction  of  the  Consumer  Commissions,  online  filing  of  complaint  from  the Consumer Commission having jurisdiction over the place of work/residence of the consumer irrespective of the place of transaction, videoconferencing for hearing, deemed admissibility of complaints if admissibility is not decided within 21 days of filing; provision of product liability; penal provisions for manufacture/sale of adulterated products/spurious goods; provision for making rules for prevention of unfair trade practice in e-commerce and direct selling.

The Consumer Protection Act, 2019 provides for a three tier quasi-judicial machinery at District, State and National level commonly known as 'Consumer Commissions' for protection of the rights of consumers and to provide simple and speedy redressal of consumer disputes including those related with unfair trade practices.  The  Consumer  Commissions  are  empowered  to  give  relief  of  a  specific  nature  and  award compensation to consumers, wherever appropriate.

At present, there is one National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission at the national level and thirty  five  State  Consumer  Disputes  Redressal  Commissions  at  the  state  level.  The  number  of  District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commissions (State-wise) is at Annexure-I . The consumer cases filed and disposed since 2020, state-wise and year-wise are as Annexure-II .

As per Section 32 of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, if, at any time, there is a vacancy in the office of the President or Member of the District Commission, the State Government may, by notification, direct -

- a) any other District Commission specified in that notification to exercise the jurisdiction in respect of that district also; or
- b) the President or a member of any other District Commission specified in that notification to exercise the powers and discharge the functions of the President or member of that District Commission also.

Further,  as  per  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.

Under  CONFONET  scheme,  VC  equipment  for  conducting  hearing  through  video  conferencing mode has been installed and made functional at 10 benches of the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) and 35 benches of State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commissions (SCDRCs).

The Department of Consumer Affairs has been generating consumer awareness by undertaking countrywide multimedia awareness campaigns under the aegis of "Jago Grahak Jago" to reach out to every consumer across the country by utilizing traditional media like All India Radio, Doordarshan, fairs & festivals, etc. as well as social media. Through simple messages and jingles, consumers are made aware about the consumer rights, unfair trade practices, consumer issues and the mechanism to seek redressal. The Department has also been  releasing  grant-in-aid  to  States/UTs  for  generating  consumer  awareness  at  local  level.  During  the current financial year, the Department, under consumer awareness scheme, undertook campaigns through All India Radio (AIR) during T20 World Cup, IVRS (Interactive Voice Response System) campaign, PanIndia  interaction  session  with  panchayats,  for  generating  awareness  about  consumer  rights,  standards, redressal mechanism, etc.

*****

## ANNEXURE-I

## ANNEXURE REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) to (f) OF THE LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 4320 TO BE ANSWERED ON 26.03.2025 REGARDING CONSUMER DISPUTE REDRESSAL COMMISSIONS.

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| S. No.   | Name of State/UT        |   No. of District Commissions |
|----------|-------------------------|-------------------------------|
| 1.       | A&N Island (UT)         |                             1 |
| 2.       | Andhra Pradesh          |                            17 |
| 3.       | Arunachal Pradesh       |                            25 |
| 4.       | Assam                   |                            23 |
| 5.       | Bihar                   |                            38 |
| 6.       | Chandigarh (UT)         |                             2 |
| 7.       | Chhattisgarh            |                            27 |
| 8.       | D&N Haveli and D&D (UT) |                             1 |
| 9.       | Delhi (UT)              |                            10 |
| 10.      | Goa                     |                             2 |
| 11.      | Gujarat                 |                            43 |
| 12.      | J&K (UT)                |                            10 |
| 13.      | Kerala                  |                            14 |
| 14.      | Lakshadweep (UT)        |                             1 |
| 15.      | Haryana                 |                            22 |
| 16.      | Himachal Pradesh        |                            12 |
| 17.      | Jharkhand               |                            24 |
| 18.      | Karnataka               |                            33 |
| 19.      | Madhya Pradesh          |                            48 |
| 20.      | Maharashtra             |                            40 |
| 21.      | Manipur                 |                             3 |
| 22.      | Meghalaya               |                             7 |
| 23.      | Mizoram                 |                            11 |
| 24.      | Nagaland                |                            11 |
| 25.      | Odisha                  |                            30 |
| 26.      | Puducherry (UT)         |                             1 |
| 27.      | Punjab                  |                            23 |
| 28.      | Rajasthan               |                            37 |
| 29.      | Sikkim                  |                             6 |
| 30.      | Tamil Nadu              |                            32 |
| 31.      | Telangana               |                            12 |
| 32.      | Tripura                 |                             4 |
| 33.      | Uttarakhand             |                            13 |
| 34.      | Uttar Pradesh           |                            79 |
| 35.      | West Bengal             |                            23 |
| Total    | Total                   |                           685 |

## ANNEXURE - II

## ANNEXURE REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PART (a) to (f) OF THE LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 4320 TO BE ANSWERED ON 26.03.2025 REGARDING CONSUMER DISPUTE REDRESSAL COMMISSIONS

| Sl. No.   | Year                                     | 2020            | 2020            | 2021            | 2021            | 2022            | 2022            | 2023            | 2023            | 2024            | 2024            |
|-----------|------------------------------------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|
| Sl. No.   | Year                                     | Number of Cases | Number of Cases | Number of Cases | Number of Cases | Number of Cases | Number of Cases | Number of Cases | Number of Cases | Number of Cases | Number of Cases |
| Sl. No.   | Year                                     | Filed           | Disposed        | Filed           | Disposed        | Filed           | Disposed        | Filed           | Disposed        | Filed           | Disposed        |
| 1.        | ANDAMAN AND NICOBAR ISLANDS              | 31              | 18              | 21              | 25              | 23              | 36              | 8               | 2               | 10              | 1               |
| 2.        | ANDHRA PRADESH                           | 1268            | 718             | 1647            | 471             | 2678            | 3388            | 3391            | 3948            | 3213            | 2784            |
| 3.        | ARUNACHAL PRADESH                        | 13              | 9               | 13              | 9               | 22              | 19              | 39              | 30              | 42              | 23              |
| 4.        | ASSAM                                    | 260             | 154             | 337             | 218             | 553             | 619             | 559             | 520             | 532             | 589             |
| 5.        | BIHAR                                    | 2299            | 568             | 2724            | 814             | 5257            | 3054            | 4240            | 4877            | 3731            | 3253            |
| 6.        | CHANDIGARH                               | 1648            | 942             | 2147            | 1180            | 2121            | 1659            | 1770            | 2631            | 1620            | 2097            |
| 7.        | CHHATTISGARH                             | 3716            | 2475            | 3464            | 2147            | 2829            | 2364            | 3403            | 4669            | 3020            | 4875            |
| 8.        | DELHI                                    | 2981            | 1746            | 4009            | 1794            | 4942            | 5150            | 5843            | 8704            | 5894            | 6904            |
| 9.        | GOA                                      | 176             | 115             | 271             | 184             | 177             | 180             | 214             | 379             | 250             | 245             |
| 10.       | GUJARAT                                  | 9584            | 4780            | 14940           | 9777            | 14676           | 16166           | 17570           | 18082           | 17451           | 13437           |
| 11.       | HARYANA                                  | 9228            | 2662            | 10362           | 4569            | 11958           | 9020            | 13241           | 11815           | 13005           | 10388           |
| 12.       | HIMACHAL PRADESH                         | 772             | 540             | 1038            | 818             | 2267            | 1834            | 2408            | 2159            | 2196            | 2475            |
| 13.       | JHARKHAND                                | 500             | 67              | 659             | 76              | 1870            | 2124            | 1634            | 2042            | 1306            | 1413            |
| 14.       | KARNATAKA                                | 6964            | 5767            | 7066            | 7990            | 9032            | 12021           | 10391           | 12637           | 11464           | 10493           |
| 15.       | KERALA                                   | 4524            | 2432            | 4974            | 3725            | 6117            | 7222            | 8467            | 6715            | 11336           | 6964            |
| 16.       | MADHYA PRADESH                           | 12833           | 5392            | 17442           | 9127            | 16301           | 21194           | 11783           | 18401           | 10190           | 15538           |
| 17.       | MAHARASHTRA                              | 14143           | 6106            | 20983           | 13091           | 22588           | 16782           | 18415           | 7648            | 15320           | 15440           |
| 18.       | MANIPUR                                  | 17              | 13              | 30              | 18              | 74              | 61              | 50              | 62              | 86              | 36              |
| 19.       | MEGHALAYA                                | 21              | 9               | 31              | 20              | 67              | 191             | 55              | 60              | 68              | 48              |
| 20.       | MIZORAM                                  | 36              | 85              | 56              | 113             | 67              | 107             | 64              | 53              | 99              | 57              |
| 21.       | NAGALAND                                 | 7               | 2               | 21              | 3               | 13              | 15              | 12              | 12              | 5               | 1               |
| 22.       | ODISHA                                   | 3195            | 1795            | 3427            | 2579            | 4106            | 5188            | 5913            | 7146            | 5461            | 4658            |
| 23.       | PUDUCHERRY                               | 34              | 2               | 48              | 2               | 45              | 55              | 93              | 145             | 132             | 172             |
| 24.       | PUNJAB                                   | 8314            | 5218            | 8472            | 8874            | 8141            | 8184            | 6955            | 8459            | 8418            | 7193            |
| 25.       | RAJASTHAN                                | 10552           | 5133            | 14776           | 11379           | 14796           | 11573           | 13624           | 12391           | 12028           | 11348           |
| 26.       | SIKKIM                                   | 7               | 14              | 14              | 19              | 22              | 10              | 32              | 26              | 47              | 26              |
| 27.       | TAMIL NADU                               | 2000            | 1291            | 2485            | 1236            | 7079            | 10105           | 7120            | 9162            | 7141            | 7791            |
| 28.       | TELANGANA                                | 2640            | 2027            | 3533            | 2567            | 4369            | 5395            | 3954            | 4581            | 3974            | 4088            |
| 29.       | THE DADRA AND NAGAR HAVELI AND DAMAN AND | 7               | 0               | 12              | 0               | 18              | 2               | 19              | 0               | 9               | 0               |
| 30.       | DIU TRIPURA                              | 134             | 79              | 270             | 183             | 512             | 596             | 223             | 264             | 238             | 170             |
| 31.       | UTTARAKHAND                              | 1717            | 1324            | 1659            | 1343            | 2214            | 2250            | 1101            | 934             | 664             | 602             |
| 32.       | UTTAR PRADESH                            | 13946           | 4477            | 14984           | 13560           | 20412           | 26112           | 19002           | 25832           | 17363           | 20473           |
| 33. 34.   | WEST BENGAL JAMMU& KASHMIR               | 4113 0          | 1894 0          | 4688 0          | 2259            | 6350            | 7138            | 5662 19         | 6800 4          | 4897 30         | 4180            |
|           |                                          |                 |                 |                 | 0               | 10              | 0               |                 |                 |                 | 172             |
| 35.       | LAKSHADWEEP                              | 0               | 0               | 0               | 0               | 0               | 0               | 4               | 0               | 2               | 2               |
|           |                                          |                 |                 |                 |                 | 171706          |                 | 167278          |                 | 161242          |                 |
| Total     | Total                                    | 117680          | 57854           | 146603          | 100170          |                 | 179814          |                 | 181190          |                 | 157936          |