In this post, we will focus of the Government of India notification dated 31-Aug-2021 that has changed the pecuniary jurisdictions of consumer forums, including the various district forums, state consumer forums, and national consumer forum over the pecuniary value of the consideration paid to the product manufacturer or the service provider.
Pecuniary Jurisdiction of Consumer Forums
District Consumer Forum
The district forum can adjudicate matters in which the consideration paid by the end consumer is up to 50 lakhs. Earlier, it was up to one crore. This means that if you have bought a product or service worth less than 50 lakhs and you are not satisfied with it, you can file a complaint with the district forum.
State Consumer Forum
The state consumer forum can now adjudicate matters where the consideration paid is greater than 50 lakhs but up to 2 crore rupees. Earlier, it was up to 10 crore. This means that if you have bought a product or service worth more than 50 lakhs but less than 2 crore and you are not satisfied with it, you can file a complaint with the state consumer forum.
National Consumer Forum
The national consumer forum has power to adjudicate matters where the consideration paid is beyond 2 crore rupees. Earlier, it was beyond 10 crore. This means that if you have bought a product or service worth more than 2 crore and you are not satisfied with it, you can file a complaint with the national consumer forum.
Appeal Time Period and Pre-Deposit
I have also listed a brief timeline about the appeal time period as well as how much amount any appellant needs to pay before reaching to the appeal forum. For example, if you are unsatisfied with the district forum decision, the time to appeal the district forum decision is 45 days for the appellant but the appellant has to pay 50% of award with the state forum or as may be prescribed by the state forum. Similarly, if you are not satisfied with the decision of the state consumer forum, then you can appeal that particular decision or order within 30 days from the order whereas you have to pay 50% of award with the national consumer forum. And in case if you are unsatisfied with the order of the national consumer forum, you have 30 days to appeal so to the Supreme Court but again you have to pay 50% of award with the Supreme Court or as may be prescribed by the Supreme Court. Whereas in all the forums, if you want to get a review of the decision, then the time limit is 30 days from the date of the order.
Conclusion
So that is a brief about recent update on the Consumer Protection Act 2019. I hope you found this information useful and helpful. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to share them below. Thank you for watching and stay tuned for more updates from NyayTantra.