The Consumer Protection Act, 1986 is an Act to protect interest of Consumers. It was passed by the Indian Parliament to protect consumer rights and to redress consumer complaints and resolve consumer disputes. Moreover it protects the consumers from unfair trading or unfair trade practices. Consumers are cheated by producers and traders. When a consumer buys a product he or she should check or lookout all the details regarding to the product, cash, memos, quantity, quality etc. Consumer can get cheated by shopkeeper or the producer by giving poor quality of goods.

VARIOUS TYPES OF CONSUMERS EXPLOITATION :-

  1. FALSE ADVERTISING
  • DECEPTIVE PRICING  
  • DECEPTIVE BILLING
  • MISUSE OF CUSTOMER DATA

There is a very leading case related to the false advertising where the man just sued a FAIRNESS CREAM and won the Rs 15lakhs.  From promising fairness in a few days to a few weeks, these products are promoted by the icons of the film industry. Emami’s Fair & Handsome was one of the first fairness products for men in India, a District Consumer Court in Delhi recently said that the ‘Fair & Handsome’ ads by Shahrukh Khan are misleading and directed Emami to pay an amount of Rs 15 lakh as punitive damages.

PROCEDURE OF FILLING COMPLAINT :-

  1. Drafting the complaint petition in a precise manner.
  2. After the drafting, the complainant has to choose the court depending on the value of the consideration. To ensure the rightful and speedy resolution of all the consumer complaints, Consumer Protection Act, 1986 has a three-tier Redressal system on which it operates. The three layers of the redressal system are:-
  1. District Commission at the District level- The jurisdiction of this forum entertains complains of value upto Rs 20 lakhs
  2.  State Commission at the state level- The jurisdiction of this forum entertains complains of value upto Rs 1 crore.
  3. National Commission at National level- The jurisdiction of this forum entertains complains of value more than Rs. 1 crores.Each of these forums has to provide the resolution within thirty days failing to which the consumer can escalate the complaint to the next commission.
  4. After choosing the court, the statutory fees are to be deposited while filing the complaint.
  5. If one is not satisfied with the verdict of these forums, they have an option to apply for a revision to the honorable Supreme Court of India. The complaint can be filed within two years of buying.

CONCLUSION :-  The position is that only those services come within this Act, for which specific payment is been made such as electricity , telephones , banking etc thus the doctors as well as hospitals including those where treatment is given free such as government hospitals , do not come within the Act. The Act incorporates only the supply of hazardous goods, but it does not impose any strict liability who supply such goods.

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