A Consumer has a right to approach the consumer forum in case he feels that s/he has been harassed or exploited by the sellers. Thus various courts are established at District, State and National Level to sort out the disputes between the consumer and the seller.
- The District Consumer Forum (District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum (DCDRF)) allows us to approach the court in case the compensation value of upto Rs. 20 Lakhs. This means that the product or service or disputed amount should be within the above said amount.
- In case the value of the product or services goes beyond 20 lakhs but is below 1 crore, we can directly approach the State Consumer Forum ( State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (SCDRC)).
- What happens when the contested value of the product / service goes beyond 1 Crore? The consumer has an option of directly going to the National Consumer Forum ( National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC)).
Let us assume that we approached the District forum for settling our dispute and after a long set of proceedings which may take multiple months sometimes, we get an order in favour of ourselves. The Seller or service provider may file an appeal in the higher court which may again take multiple months to get sorted. Let us assume that the middle court also ordered in our favour. The Seller or service provider again files an appeal in the National forum, again stalling the case for multiple months.
In this entire process, we realize that we end up spending time, effort and resources to get compensation for the product or services we paid for, whereas the seller or service provider stalled the case to buy time.
It is thus beneficial that if there are multiple people fighting for the same cause (for example in case of builder not giving possession to multiple people), we come together and file a case as a group, where the collective value goes beyond 1 Crore, thus saving us, time efforts and resources, All.
For detailed clarification, request you to please consult with your lawyer. We can only share the experience of what we have faced. Richie – 98604.65660.
Read More at: Activities At Asar
The Plight of Men and Women – Cheated by builders
NCDRC 12(1)b or 12(1)c – which one to go for ?
Cheated By Builders ? What Next ?
Bought your Flat. Did U get Delivery ?