Southern States - Tamil Nadu   

Consumer forum disposes of 27 cases in a month

By K.T. Sangameswaran

CHENNAI AUG. 27. Taking the cue from a Madras High Court arrangement for early disposal of petitions of senior citizens, a consumer forum disposed of 27 cases in the last one month. What should bring cheer to senior citizens is that of the total cases adjudicated by the forum, nearly 20 were complaints pertaining to non-return of deposits on time.

Nearly a month ago, a special box was placed at the entrance of the Registrar-General office on the court campus for senior citizens to deposit their petitions. The facility was introduced to facilitate early hearing of applications so that senior citizens could see the logical conclusion of the cases in their lifetime. Preference would be given to cases and action taken next day.

Following introduction of the arrangement in the court, the District Consumer Disputes Redress Forum, Chennai (North) president, K. Ramasamy, decided to take up complaints by senior citizens from July 24. As per the Consumer Protection Act a case should be disposed of within 90 days and where laboratory analysis had to be done, the time limit had been fixed as 150 days. However, the deadline could not be strictly adhered to for various reasons.

Mr. Ramasamy told The Hindu that considering the hardship faced by senior citizens and for speedy disposal of cases, he advised advocates themselves to take the notice on behalf of their parties, instead of the usual process of sending it by post. Advocates extended their cooperation for quick adjudication of complaints.

The recent amendment to the CPA also came in handy to the forum, in that the process was sent to the parties concerned through fax. Of the 27 cases, a majority related to default in repayment of deposits on time. Instances were not wanting where, in view of quick disposal of applications, depositors agreed to get back the deposit without interest and the payer also readily accepted to refund the deposit, the president said.

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