Consumer court orders can be enforced directly: State government to HC

The Maharashtra food and civil supplies department informed the Bombay high court (HC) on Wednesday that it has deleted the notification issued on May 24, 2019 which mandated consumer courts to forward applications to civil courts for enforcement.

Clause 14(6) of the Consumer Protection Rules, 2019 mandated the state commission and district fora to forward applications seeking execution of orders passed by them in favour of consumers.

Mumbai Grahak Panchayat (MGP) had approached the HC, questioning the validity of said clause. MGP contended that the rule was a gross violation of section 25 of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 which empowers the consumer forum and state commission to enforce their orders.

MGP’s petition stated that acting on the rule, the state consumer commission had on June 11, declared that it will forward all execution applications to a civil court. According to MGP’s counsel, advocate Uday Warunjikar, the state government had no authority to frame a rule taking away power conferred by the Consumer Protection Act.

He also submitted that after the rules were notified, consumer forums had stopped processing execution applications.

Acting on the public interest litigation (PIL), the bench of chief justice Pradeep Nandrajog and justice Bharati Dangre had, on August 14, restrained the state consumer commission and district forums across Maharashtra from transmitting consumer applications for enforcement of orders to civil courts.