It is a fundamental right of every consumer to be protected against any violation of its consumer rights. In today’s cut throat competition in consumerism, these rights are being trampled on all over as is evident from the number of cases pending before the redress forums. A lot of awareness is sought to be made in the print and electronic media, awakening the general public on its consumer rights and the need to protect them. It appears such a simple procedure to redress your grievances through these forums. In reality, it can be a very harrowing experience. Especially when someone wants to spite you on a fictitious complain.
In Goa, we have the Consumer Redressal Forum at Porvorim. It boasts of being a voluntary organization working for the rights of the people, creating awareness, sensitization and advocate about people’s rights with striving towards initiating public discourse on issues related to violation of rights .Very pleasant to hear. But the ground reality is a far cry from this.
Firstly, as in the case of our judicial system, one judge has to hear far too many cases. People, who have been wronged and have filed complains expecting speedy redress, are being made to leave their job/business and make umpteen trips to these “courts”, as the hearings are adjourned on the flimsiest of grounds.
Add to this there is a strong public perception that invariably there is an alleged “setting” between lawyers of a case, whereby the wrongdoer gets the case rigged with the opponents lawyer (for a consideration which would be only a part of what he would have to pay when found guilty). Your case is weakened by these tainted lawyers and you are left holding the baby. The party seeking redress finds that it is already pronounced guilty by subjecting it to the harrowing experience of running the case. Will the concerned authorities do something to redress the “redress mechanism” or is this a ploy of the redress forum to make the litigants so miserable that they desist from filing for redress?
