Consumer Court

Consumer Court is the name given to special purpose courts, mainly in India, that deal with cases regarding consumer disputes and grievances. These are judiciary set ups by the government to protect the consumer rights. Their main function is to maintain the fair practices by the sellers towards consumers.

India

Different types of Consumer Courts

1. A national level court works for the whole country and deals with amount more than 1 crore.
2. A state level court works at the state level with case valuing less than Rs.1 crore.
3. A district level court works at the district level with cases valuing up to Rs.20 lacs.

Consumer movement

In India, the consumer movement as a social force originated with the necessity of protecting and promoting the interests of consumers against unethical and unfair trade practices. Rampant food shortages, hoarding, black marketing, adulteration of food and edible oil gave birth to the consumer movement in an organized form in the 1960s.

The movement succeeded in bringing pressure.A major step was taken in 1986 by the Indian government was the enactment of the Consumer Protection Act 1986 (COPRA).

In India the main function/role of consumer court is to provide some extra privilege to the consumers and to maintain the fair practice by the seller or the service provider towards the consumer. Submitting complaint is very simple and consumer has no need to hire any lawyer. The government of India has made approaching a consumer court very simple and extremely cheap as you can represent yourself without having to hire a lawyer and the court fee is just Rs100 which is about US$2.

Consumer courts are now forcing the consumers to file case files in local language instead of English. Previously the consumer had choice to file his case either in English or the local language.

See also

• Small claims court

References