The definition of Consumer right is ‘the right to have
information about the quality, potency, quantity, purity, price, and standard of
goods or services’, as it may be the case, but the consumer is to be protected
against any unfair practices of the trade. It is very essential for the consumers
to know these rights.
(Grahak Complaints)
Consumer Rights under the Consumer Protection Act, India
Right to Safety:
Right to Information:
Right to Choice:
Right to be Heard or Right to Representation:
Right to Seek Redressal:
Right to Consumer Education:
1. Right to Safety:
According to this right the consumers have the right to be
protected against the marketing of goods and services which are hazardous to
life and property,
Consumer Complaints India this right is
important for safe and secure life. This right includes concern for consumer’s
long term interest as well as for their present requirement.
Sometimes the manufacturing defects in pressure cookers, gas
cylinders, and other electrical appliances may cause loss to life, health and
property of customers. This right to safety protects the
Consumer Forum sale of such hazardous goods or services.
2. Right to Information:
According to this right the consumer has the right to get
information about the quality, quantity, purity, standard and price of goods or
service so as to protect himself against abusive and unfair practices. The producer must supply all the relevant information at a suitable place
Consumer Complaints India.
3. Right to Choice:
According to this right every consumer has the right to
choose the goods or services of his or her likings. The right to choose means
an assurance of availability,
Consumer Complaints Forum ability and access
to a variety of products and services at competitive price and competitive
price means just or fair price.
The producer or supplier or retailer should not force the
customer to buy a particular brand only. Consumer should be free to choose the
most suitable product from his point of view.
4. Right to be Heard or Right to Representation:
According to this right the consumer has the right to
represent him or to be heard or right to advocate his interest. In case a
consumer has been exploited or has any complaint against the product or service
then he has the right to be heard and be assured that his/her interest would
receive due consideration.
This right includes the right to representation in the
government and in other policy making bodies. Under this right the companies
must have complaint cells to attend the complaints of customers.
5. Right to Seek Redressal:
According to this right the consumer has the right to get
compensation or seek redressal against unfair trade practices or any other
exploitation. This right assures justice to consumer against exploitation.
The right to redressal includes compensation in the form of
money or replacement of goods or repair of defect in the goods as per the
satisfaction of consumer. Various redressal forums are set up by the government
at national level and state level.
6. Right to Consumer Education:
According to this right it is the right of consumer to
acquire the knowledge and skills to be informed to customers. It is easier for
literate consumers to know their rights and take actions but this right assures
that illiterate consumer can seek information about the existing acts and
agencies are set up for their protection.
The government of India has included consumer education in
the school curriculum and in various university courses. Government is also
making use of media to make the consumers aware of their rights and make wise
use of their money.
However there are strong and clear laws in India to defend
consumer rights, the actual plight of consumers of India can be declared as
completely dismal. Out of the various laws that have been enforced to protect
the consumer rights in India, the most important is the Consumer Protection
Act, 1986. According to this law, everybody, including individuals, a firm, a
Hindu undivided family and a company, have the right to exercise their consumer
rights for the purchase of goods and services made by them. It is significant
that, as consumer, one knows the basic rights as well as about the courts and
procedures that follow with the infringement of one’s rights Indian Consumer Complaint Forum.
In general, the consumer rights in India are listed below:
The right to be protected from all kind of hazardous goods
and services
The right to be fully informed about the performance and
quality of all goods and services
The right to free choice of goods and services
The right to be heard in all decision-making processes
related to consumer interests
The right to seek redressal, whenever consumer rights have
been infringed
The right to complete consumer education
The Consumer Protection Act, 1986 and several other laws
like the Weights, Standards & Measures Act can be formulated to make sure
that there is fair competition in the market and free flow of correct
information from goods and services providers to the ones who consume them. In
fact, the degree of consumer protection in any country is regarded as the right
indicator of the progress of the country.There is high level of phistication
gained by the goods and services providers in their marketing and selling
practices and different types of promotional tasks viz. advertising resulted in
an increasing requirement for more consumer areness and protection. The
government of India has realized the condition of Indian consumers therefore
the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, customer Complaint Forum
Food and Public Distribution has
incorporated the Department of Consumer Affairs as the nodal organization to
protect the consumer rights, redress the consumer grievances and promote the
standards governing goods and services provided in India. Indian Consumer Complaint If there is infringement of rights of consumer then a
complaint can be made under the following circumstances and reported to the
close by designated
consumer court:
The goods or services purchased by a person or agreed to be
purchased by a person has one or more defects or deficiencies in any respect
A trader or a service provider resort to unfair or
restrictive practices of trade
A trader or a service provider if charges a price more than
the price displayed on the goods or the price that was agreed upon between the
parties or the price that was stipulated under any law that exist
Goods or services that bring a hazard to the safety or life
of a person offered for sale, unknowingly or knowingly, that cause injury to
health, safety or life
Consumer Complaint Sites (www.grahakcomplaints.in)
RIGHT TO SAFETY
According to the Consumer Protection Act 1986, the consumer
right is referred to as ‘right to be protected against marketing of goods and
services which are hazardous to life and property’. It is applicable to
specific areas like healthcare, pharmaceuticals and food processing, this right
is spread across the domain having a serious effect on the health of the
consumer so their well being viz. Automobiles, Housing, Domestic Appliances,
Travel etc. When there is violation of the right then there occur medical
malpractice lawsuits in the country. It is estimated every year that thousands
or millions of citizens of India are killed or seriously injured by immoral
practices by doctors, hospitals, pharmacies and the automobile industry. Still
the government of India, known for its callousness, does not succeed in
acknowledging this fact or making a feeble effort for maintaining statistics of
the mishaps. The Government of India needs to have world class product testing
facilities to test drugs, food, cars or any other consumable product that can
prove to be a menace to life. It does not happen coincidently that Tata Nano is
sold in India for half of what it costs in a country which is industrially
developed, this is a classic case of requirement of a cheap product that
outweighs the need for safety of family and self. The developed countries like
the United States have stalwart agencies which oversee the protection of
consumer products, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for food and drugs,
the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for automobiles and
the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) for various other consumer
products etc. This right needs each product which can potentially be a danger
to our lives to be marketed after adequate and complete verification as well as
validation. India is 50 years away, for empowering this right adequately and
completely.
consumer forum online
RIGHT TO INFORMATION
The right to information is defined as ‘the right to be
informed about the quality, quantity, potency, purity, standard and price of
goods or services, as the case may be so as to protect the consumer against
unfair trade practices’ in the Consumer Protection Act of 1986. In the market
place of India, consumers get information by two ways namely advertising and
word of mouth however these sources are considered to be unreliable but still
this word of mouth is quite common here. Because of this, the Indian consumers
hardly have precise and complete information for assessing the true value,
safety, suitability, reliability of any product. Usually the hidden costs can
be found, lack of suitability, quality problems and safety hazards only after
the purchase of the product. There is another right claimed by Indian
government on paper, this right must ideally make sure that all consumable
products have been labeled in a standard manner containing the cost, quantity,
the ingredients and instructions given to use the product safely. It is
unfortunate that even the medicines in the country do not follow a standardized
labeling convention. There should be establishment of unit price publishing
standards for consumer market where costs are revealed in standard units like
per kg or per liter.
Consumer Complaint Online,
ought to be informed in an exact yet accurate manner for the cost involved
during time of availing a loan. For providing benefit to the society through
this right, advertisers must be held against the andards of products in the
advertisements. The pharmaceuticals require todisclose potential side effects
related to their drugs and manufacturers ought to be required to publish
reports from independent product testing laboratories for the purpose of
comparing the quality of their products from competitive products.
(Online Consumer Forum)
There is a website: Consumerdaddy.com, for the purpose of
empowering the consumers withright to information. Without help of these types
of websites it is difficult to spread awareness among the consumers of India.
The right to information gives the power to the consumers to have an easy
access to information which is necessary for the consumer.(
Consumer Forum Online Complaint)
RIGHT TO CHOOSE
The definition of Right to Choose as per the Consumer
Protection Act 1986 is ‘the right to be assured, wherever possible, to have
access to a variety of goods and services at competitive prices’. For
regulating the market place, there is just one factor required and that is
competition.The existence of cartels, oligopolies and monopolies prove to be
counterproductive to consumerism. The natural resources, liquor industry,
telecommunications, airlines etc all are being controlled by a mafia to some or
the other extent. Since the Indian consumers come from a socialistic
background, the tolerating of monopolistic market is found in their blood. It
is seldom seen that people want to switch the power company, in the times when
they have a blackout at home.It is interesting to know that even micro markets
like fish vendors in some cities are known to collude and discourage the
consumers’ bargaining power.No matter what size or form, or span, but collusion
of various companies which sell a similar kind of product is unethical or say
less legal. It can be estimated that India has to stride for about 20 more
years for empowering its citizens fully in this regard.(
Consumer Forum Complaint
Online)
RIGHT TO BE HEARD
As stated in the Consumer Protection Act 1986, ‘the right to
be heard and to be assured that consumer’s interests will receive due
consideration at appropriate forums’ is the definition of the right to be
heard.
(ConsumerForum in India) This
right helps to empower the consumers of India for putting forward their
complaints and concerns fearlessly and raising their voice against products or
even companies and ensure that their issues are taken into consideration as
well as handled expeditiously. However, till date the Indian Government has not
formed even one outlet for hearing the consumers or their issues to be sorted
out.There are a number of websites striving to do this. The major objective of
Consumer is to ensure that their voices are heard by the corporate world. There
is a website, Consumerdaddy.com, where consumers can upload their criticisms as
well as file complaints
(consumer complaint).
Every criticism filed gradually lessens the overall score of the product which
is being criticized therefore each complaint is independently checked by an
investigator who belonged to Consumerdaddy.com website. This website provides
the consumers the benefit of doubt always, so their voice is considered over
that of the company. It is believed at consumerdaddy.com, that consumer is
always right, and that he is the king. In case a consumer makes an allegation
regarding the product, the onus goes to the dealer, orsupplying company or
manufacturer to disprove that allegation is not true.To be precise, the
consumer is heard
(consumer forum), and the load of proof
goes to the company. Various attempts are made by the government for empowering
the citizens with this right, and it is believed that about 10-15 years more
are required for the accomplishment of this goal.
RIGHT TO REDRESSAL
The right to seek redressal against unfair trade practices
or restrictive trade practices or unscrupulous exploitation of consumers’ is
referred to as the right to redressal according to the Consumer Protection Act
1986.
The government of India has been bit more successful with
regard to this right. The Consumer courts like District Consumer Disputes
Redressal Forums at district level, State Consumer Disputes Redressal
Commissions and National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commissions have been
incorporated with the help of the consumer protection act. These consumer
grievance redressal agencies have fiduciary as well as geographical
jurisdictions which address consumer cases between businesses and
consumers.About 20 lakhs Consumer cases are heard in the district consumer
forum, and around one crore can be heard in the state consumer court while more
than one crore cases are heard at national consumer court. It has been found
that if one becomes guardian of consumer protection or consumer rights in the
country these courts today are found to be ineffective because of bureaucratic
sabotages, clogged cases, callousness of government and decadent
infrastructure. Only some of the district forums have appointed officials for
time being and majority of them are non-functional because of funding and
infrastructure constraints. There are around 20-30 million open cases in India
which remain unsolved and would take around 320 years to wind up. Having such
type of compromised legal system the consumer cases form just civil litigations
and are carried forward to the bottom of the priority list. It is estimated
that India is 10 years away in effectively ensuring the right to redressal to
every consumer of India.
RIGHT TO CONSUMER EDUCATION
The right of every Indian citizen to have education on
matters regarding consumer protection as well as about her/his right is
regarded as the last right provided by the Consumer Protection Act 1986. The
right makes sure that the consumers in the country have informational programs
and materials which are easily accessible and would enable them to make
purchasing decisions which are better than before. Consumer education might
refer to formal education through college and school curriculums as well as
consumer awareness campaigns being run by non-governmental and governmental
agencies both. Consumer NGOs, having little endorsement from the government of
India, basically undertake the task of ensuring the consumer right throughout
the country. India is found to be 20 years away from giving this right that
gives power to the common consumer.
