Consumers win legal battle but lose the war
In October, 1997, retired employee of Gujarat State Transport Corporation K M Champavat invested Rs 50,000 in a fixed deposit scheme for a year with Chennai-based Penta Four Products Limited (PPL). The firm assured him of a 15 per cent return. When the sum matured, the firm failed to pay up, and Champavat approached the Consumer Disputes Redressel Forum (CDRF). In July, 2001, the CDRF directed PPL to pay not only the principal with 15 per cent interest, but also an additional Rs 5,000 for causing mental agony and Rs 2,000 litigation cost. The firm did not comply, and Champavat moved a contempt application. CDRF issued bailable warrants against the firm’s officials, but these were returned by the Chennai police each time, stating that the respondent was not available.

Dakshesh Choksi, a chartered accountant with Maradia Leasing and Finance Services Limited, recently filed a contempt application with the District Consumer Forum against the Standard Chartered Bank. Four months back, the Forum had passed an order against the bank, directing it to pay Rs 10,000 within 30 days for deficiency in services. But the bank did not bother to pay.

In 1994, Ramesh B Valvekar filed a complaint in the district forum against Kirti Associates, a construction company. He had paid Rs 74,000 to the firm for buying a flat, but never got it. Valvekar then approached the forum. In 1997, the forum passed an order in Valvekar’s favour, but the order is still to be executed.

Justice delayed in justice denied. But these are the cases where justice is being denied to people who have won the legal battle, after all those usual delays. Every month, 25 to 30 contempt applications are filed in the consumer forum against defendants to refuse to honour its orders.

‘‘What do I do with an order if it cannot be executed?’’ asks an agitated Champavat, whose soles have worn thin by the repeated trips to the Forum over the past three years for hearings.

Every time he is told that the warrant sent by the Forum could not be executed.

The story is the same in the case of Jitendra Shukla and 14 others, who have been doing the rounds of the Forum for the last two years. Their complaint is against Krishna Tours and Travels for deficiency in services during a trip to Char-Dhams. The Forum, after ordering Rs 6,000 as compensation to each of them, issued non-bailable warrants. But, Krishna Tours and Travels is unfazed.

A dejected Shukla says: ‘‘We approached the Forum expecting quick justice, but two years have passed and we see no relief in sight.’’

CDRF president K D Desai admitted, ‘‘Yes, there are problems getting orders executed, especially when the respondents’ happen to be from other states. But then, there are problems getting the orders executed locally as well. Though the number of such matters is not high.’’

‘‘If an ordered is not honoured, we issue warrants against those violating the Forum orders. The warrants are to be served by the police and if the police doesn’t respond, who is to blame?’’, he remarked.

One of the reasons the defendents don’t act on the Forum’s orders is, ‘‘it lacks teeth. People take the Forum casually as it has no machinery of its own to execute the judgments,’’ explains Kirit Sheth, an advocate practicing at the Forum.

Republished from The Asian Age