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Subject: Governance

Important aspects of Society

  • The Mediation Bill, 2021

    Context

    The Mediation Bill, 2021 was introduced in Parliament in December 2021. It seeks to ‘promote mediation (including online), and provide for enforcement of settlement agreements resulting from mediation’.

    Need to popularise mediation

    • The Chief Justice of India (CJI), N.V. Ramana, had said that mediation should be made mandatory as a first step in dispute resolution and that a law should be framed in this regard.
    • He emphasised the point that a movement needs to be launched to popularise mediation as it was a cheaper and faster dispute resolution mechanism.
    • He said that courts should be the last resort for dispute resolution; therefore, one should explore the options of alternate dispute resolution.
    • The Tamil Nadu Mediation and Conciliation Centre, an initiative of the Madras High Court and India’s first court-annexed facility with a mediation centre in every district, has significantly reduced the pendency of referred cases.

    Which laws in India allow mediation?

    • Mediation finds legitimacy in some specific laws such as:
    • The Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996,
    • The Companies Act, 2013,
    • The Commercial Courts Act, 2015,
    • The Consumer Protection Act, 2019,
    • However, there is no standalone legislation as yet.

    How the provisions of Mediation Bill 2021 will help in improving the law and order situation

    • The bill seeks to promote mediation (including online), and provide for enforcement of settlement agreements resulting from mediation’.
    • In case of civil or commercial disputes, a person must try to settle the dispute by mediation before approaching a court or tribunal.
    • Improving the law and order situation: There are certain provisions in the Bill which may help in improving the law and order situation in a locality and/or encourage compounding of criminal offences.
    • First, Section 7 of the Bill says that courts will be competent to refer any dispute to mediation relating to compoundable offences or matrimonial offences connected with or arising out of civil proceedings between the parties.
    • Second, Section 44 of the Bill provides for ‘any dispute likely to affect peace, harmony and tranquillity amongst the residents or families of any area or locality, to be settled through community mediation.
    •  Third, the provisions of the Act shall not have the overriding effect, inter alia, on the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizen Act, 2007 and the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013.
    • Promote friendliness: Section 320 in the Code Of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) provides for the compounding of certain criminal offences which shall have the effect of acquittal of the accused.
    • Here, the policy of the law is to promote friendliness between the parties so that peace between them is restored.
    • Relieving the pressure on the police: Many criminal offences are a result of the fact that civil or commercial disputes could not be resolved amicably and in time.
    • The police at times take minor cases lightly or reduce the seriousness of crime by converting a cognisable offence into a non-cognisable one.
    • Therefore, the proposed law of mediation, that has the mechanism of not only preventing the breakdown of law and order through community intervention but also the competence to smoothen the route to compounding of certain criminal offences, may ultimately relieve some of the pressure on the police also.

    Some laws are left out of the scope of Mediation Bill 2021

    • Law to prevent sexual harassment of women at workplace: The law to prevent the sexual harassment of women at the workplace has probably been kept out of its scope so that an internal or local complaint committee is able to take up conciliation and close the case locally without involving a third party and detailed procedure.
    • Law on welfare of parents and senior citizens: The law on the maintenance and the welfare of parents and senior citizens has also been kept out of its scope as offences under it are cognisable offences.

    Way forward

    • The Supreme Court’s view: The Supreme Court of India has held that if there is a composition of an offence during investigation, the parties can either approach the court or the police.
    • Increasing the compoundable offences: The number of offences that can be compounded may also be increased — particularly property offences.
    • Keeping in view the recommendations of the Law Commission in its 243rd report, Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code, relating to cruelty by the husband or his relatives, can also be made compoundable.
    • It may have far-reaching consequences in resolving matrimonial disputes.

    Consider the question “What are the provisions of the Mediation Bill 2021 that could help relieve some of the pressure on law enforcement agencies?”

    Conclusion

    Though the proposed law primarily intends to resolve civil and commercial disputes through mediation, it has ample scope to relieve some of the pressure on law enforcement agencies.

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    Back2Basics: What is a Compoundable and Non Compoundable offence in India

    • Compoundable offences are those offences where, the complainant (one who has filed the case, i.e. the victim), enter into a compromise, and agrees to have the charges dropped against the accused.
    • However, such a compromise should be a “Bonafide,” and not for any consideration to which the complainant is not entitled to.
    • Compoundable offences are less serious criminal offences and are of two different types mentioned in tables in Section 320 of the Criminal Procedure Code, as follows:
    • Court permission is not required: These are the offences, compounding of which do not require prior permission of the court.
    •  Court permission is required: These are the offences, compounding of which require prior permission of the court.

  • [pib] Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS)

    The Union Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports (MYAS) has approved the inclusion of Alpine Skiing athlete Mohammad Arif Khan in the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) Core group.

    Target Olympic Podium Scheme

    • In order to improve India’s performance at the Olympics and Paralympics, the MYAS started the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) in September 2014.
    • It includes foreign training, international competition, equipment, and coaching camp besides a monthly stipend of Rs. 50,000/- for each athlete.
    • It was particularly launched for India’s Olympic medal dream, at the 2016 (Rio) and 2020 (Tokyo) Olympics.

    How does it function?

    • The Mission Olympic Cell is a dedicated body created to assist the athletes who are selected under the TOP Scheme.
    • The MOC is under the Chairmanship of the Director-General, Sports Authority of India (DG, SAI).
    • The idea of the MOC is to debate, discuss and decide the processes and methods so that the athlete receives the best assistance.
    • The MOC also focuses on the selection, exclusion, and retention of athletes, coaches, training institutes that can receive TOPS assistance.

     

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  • Extinguishing the tobacco industry’s main narrative

    Context

    There is no doubt that tobacco use is highly detrimental to public health. We have to find the ways and the means to reduce the demand for tobacco among existing as well as aspiring users.

    Impact of tobacco

    • Tobacco is a product that kills more than 13 lakh Indians every year.
    • Annual burden: The annual economic burden from tobacco use is estimated to be ₹177,340 crore which is more than 1% of India’s GDP.
    • About 27 crore people above the age of 15 years and 8.5% of school-going children in the age group 13-15 years use tobacco in some form in India.

    Are price and tax measures effective against tobacco use?

    • When tobacco products become more expensive, people either quit using them or use them less, and it incentivises many to not initiate the habit.
    • Because it hurts both revenue and profits, the tobacco industry, globally, is always devising tactics and narratives that will pre-empt any kind of tax increases on tobacco products.
    • The narrative of “increasing illicit trade” is something the tobacco industry has historically used to pre-empt potential tax increases on tobacco products in most countries around the world.
    • The story is no different in India.
    • In a recent report by the Tobacco Institute of India, it was said that the illicit cigarette volume in India has grown by 44% from 2011 to 2019 while adding that high and increasing tax rates provide a profitable opportunity for tax evasion and encourage growth in illegal trade.
    • A study published in 2018 which used a survey of empty cigarette packs collected from retail outlets across different cities in India estimated that illicit cigarettes constitute 2.7% of the market.
    • The second study published in 2020 used tax-gap analysis to estimate that the percentage of illicit cigarettes was 5.1% in 2009-10 and 6.6% in 2016-17.

    Are taxes and prices key determinants of illicit trade?

    • It is to be noted that taxes and prices are not the key determinants of illicit trade.
    • There is sufficient evidence in the literature on illicit trade in cigarettes that shows tax increases only have a minimal impact, if at all, on illicit trade.
    • There are several countries where tobacco taxes are quite high and yet have low levels of illicit trade, while there are also countries with high levels of illicit trade despite having relatively low tax rates.
    • Several factors such as the quality of tax administration, the strength of the regulatory framework, government commitment to control illicit trade, the strength of governance, social acceptance, and the presence of informal distribution networks are known to play a larger role in determining the scale and the extent of an illicit market.

    Way forward

    • WHO protocol: Eliminating all forms of illicit trade in tobacco products through a package of measures is one of the major objectives of the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products under the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
    • The Protocol provides the tools and the measures to eliminate or minimise illicit trade which includes strong governance, establishing an international track and trace system, and securing supply chains.
    • India has already ratified the World Health Organization Protocol and it should now show leadership in implementing these measures to effectively address even the relatively lower levels of illicit trade.

    Conclusion

    There is no scientific or public health rationale not to increase tax on tobacco products for unfounded fear of increasing illicit trade.

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  • Worrying trends in nutrition indicators in NFHS-5 data

    Context

    The NFHS-5 factsheets for India and all states and Union territories are now out. At first glance, it appears to be a mixed bag — much to cheer about, but concern areas remain.

    Positives from the NFHS-5 survey

    • Change in demographic trends: For the first time since the NFHS 1992-93 survey, the sex ratio is slightly higher among the adult population.
    • Improvement in sex ratio at birth: For the first time in 15 years that the sex ratio at birth has reached 929 (it was 919 for 1,000 males in 2015-16).
    • The total fertility rate has also dropped from 2.2 per cent to a replacement rate of 2 per cent, albeit with not much change in the huge fertility divide between the high and low fertility states.
    • Improvement in literacy level of women: There has been an appreciable improvement in general literacy levels and in the percentage of women and men who have completed 10 years or more of schooling, which has reached 41 per cent and 50.2 per cent respectively.
    • Improvements in health indicators: The health sector deserves credit for achieving a significant improvement in the percentage of institutional births, antenatal care, and children’s immunisation rates.
    • There has also been a consistent drop in neonatal, infant and child mortality rates — a decrease of around 1 per cent per year for neonatal and infant mortality and a 1.6 per cent decrease per year for under five mortality rate.

    Nutrition: Area of concern

    • Increase in anaemic people: India has become a country with more anaemic people since NFHS-4 (2015-16), with anaemia rates rising significantly across age groups, ranging from children below six years, adolescent girls and boys, pregnant women, and women between 15 to 49 years.
    • Why anaemia is a concern? Adverse effects of anaemia affect all age groups — lower physical and cognitive growth and alertness among children and adolescents, and lesser capacity to learn and play, directly impacting their future potential as productive citizens.
    •  Further, anaemia among adolescent girls (59.1 per cent) advances to maternal anaemia and is a major cause of maternal and infant mortality and general morbidity and ill health in a community.
    • The detailed report will explain why a dedicated programme like Anaemia Mukt Bharat which focused on IFA consumption failed to gain impetus.
    • Slow pace of improvement in nutritional indicators: Between NFHS 4 and NFHS 5, the percentage of children below five years who are moderately underweight has reduced from 35.8 per cent to 32.1 per cent.
    • Moderately stunted children have fallen from 38.4 per cent to 35.5 per cent, moderately wasted from 21 per cent to 19.3 per cent and severely wasted have increased slightly from 7.5 per cent to 7.7 per cent.
    • Inadequate diet: The root cause for this is that the percentage of children below two years receiving an adequate diet is a mere 11.3 per cent, increasing marginally from 9.6 per cent in NFHS-4.

    Way forward

    • India’s nutrition programmes must undergo a periodic review.
    • The Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), which is perceived as the guardian of the nation’s nutritional well-being must reassess itself and address critical intervention gaps, both conceptually and programmatically, and produce rapid outcomes.

    Conclusion

    The nutritional deficit which ought to be considered an indicator of great concern is generally ignored by policymakers and experts. Unless this is addressed, rapid improvement in nutritional indicators cannot happen.

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  • How to control cyber crime against women

    Context

    The open-source app, Bulli Bai, hosted on the web platform GitHub for “auctioning Muslim women” has laid bare the harassment women face online.

    Cybercrimes against women

    • As per the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) there were around 825 million internet users in India at the end of March 2021.
    • The minuscule amount of rogue elements among these internet users have the lethal capability to create havoc in the nation, its polity, economy and the personal and professional lives of citizens.
    • Reluctance to file case: Many times, police officers are approached by anxious parents, days before marriage, seeking help about fake profiles or morphed photographs of their daughters on the internet.
    • A formal police case is thus never lodged.
    • The stark reality is that cyber blackmailing, stalking and bullying is a humongous issue, causing a lot of stress to women and their families.
    •  NCRB statistics show that total cyber crimes in India during 2020 were 50,035, and those specifically against women were only 10,405.

    Steps need to be taken

    • Promt reporting and registration: To find out the true magnitude of cyber crime, prompt reporting and registration are the only options.
    • International cooperation through treaties: There are many international gangs which successfully avoid detection as “servers” used by them are located outside India.
    • International cooperation through formal treaties and informal channels has to be pursued.
    • CERT-IN has been doing commendable work in this regard.
    • Registering a criminal case is the first crucial step as it sets the law into motion, leading to tracing, arresting and prosecuting the rogues even if they are located outside the country.
    • Increase awareness:  There is need to increase awareness about cyber safety and security so that youth, especially young girls and women, take proper precautions while surfing the virtual world.
    • Better policing: As for the police, we do need better infrastructure, more special cyber cells and police stations, regular training, and collaboration with cyber experts on a continuous basis.
    • Strengthening the capability of forensic laboratories can lead to timely collection of evidence of cyber bullying, threatening, morphing and profiling.
    • Many state labs do not have sufficient numbers of cyber experts to seize, preserve and store images of digital evidence essential for securing conviction in courts.
    • The central government has given funds to states and Union territories under the Cyber Crime Prevention Against Women and Children (CCPWC) scheme to start “cyber forensic-cum-training laboratories”.
    • Fast trial: Fast trial of cyber crimes would indeed help. As per the NCRB, during 2020, court trials were completed in only nine cases of cyber blackmailing and threatening with a 66.7 per cent conviction rate — 393 such cases are pending in courts.
    • Systematic training of prosecutors and judicial officers in dealing with cyber crimes would definitely speed up trials.

    Conclusion

    Prompt reporting of cyber crime by citizens, technically proficient investigation by police adequately supported by forensics, and time-bound completion of court trials are essential for catching cyber offenders who are terrorising people, especially women, in the virtual as well as the real world.

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  • Challenges facing the Civil Society Organisations

    Context

    Recently, the Missionaries of Charity established by Nobel Laureate Mother Teresa was in the news for the cancellation of its permission under the FCRA.

    Detailed scrutiny delaying permission for grant

    • The levels of due diligence and the information sought on the one hand and the annual declarations to be given by the board members of civil society organisations on the other have increased significantly.
    • The mandatory opening of bank accounts for foreign contributions has been centralised in one branch of the State Bank of India.
    • The linking of Permanent Account Number (PAN), Aadhaar number and mapping it with the bank account/s of the individual board members are happening.
    • The registrations under Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) have been long necessitated in order to undertake due diligence of the causes for which the organisation is working for and also to have a handle on the traceability of funds.
    • The dashboard shows a little under 17,000 active organisations — which have either got permission or will know their fate by March 2022, while around 33,000 organisations have either lost their permission or it has expired.

    Various restrictions

    • Restriction on sub-grant: In the past, the amendments in the FCRA that restricted the ability to sub-grant, killed many of the niche organisations working in very remote areas which had no direct access to international funding but were doing it through larger non-governmental organisations.
    • Restriction on administrative expenses: The other amendment restricting the proportion of expenses on administration almost choked organisations that worked for the rights of the disposed.
    • The increasing level of surveillance type of data sought has resulted in many organisations losing people on their governance structure and resulting in problems in funding.

    Why do we need Civil Society Organisations?

    • We need them because they usually work on what can be called an unreasonable agenda.
    • This unreasonableness falls in three large verticals.
    • [1] Ensuring efficiency and accountability from state: The first is that they ask for greater efficiency, delivery and accountability from the state.
    • Whether is it about rehabilitation and compensation in the case of land acquisition or setting up a great accountability framework as was done through the movement led by the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan for the Right to Information.
    • [2] Correcting extractive nature of market: The second vertical is in correcting the extractive nature of markets.
    • The groups asking for environmental accountability are looking at inter-generational justice on a matter that is not very precisely measurable but is palpable.
    • [3] Picking up niche causes: The third is basically picking up causes that are so niche that it is beyond the capability of the state to come up with such initiatives.
    • For example, a drama school set up in a village called Heggodu, Karnataka, or an idea of distributing clothing for work as done by Goonj.
    • These initiatives cannot be put into specific business plans, spreadsheets or government schemes.
    • They, therefore, need a grant-based, cause-based revenue stream model.

    Should these organisations accept foreign funding?

    • Causes have no boundaries: “Causes” have no boundaries and funding for such socially desirable belief systems could come from beyond borders.
    • Some causes carried out by organisations such as Doctors Without Borders, or Reporters Without Borders are by definition international in nature.
    • Similar is the case with the Jaipur foot provided by the Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sahayata Samiti.
    • The humanitarian work by the Missionaries of Charity is beyond the capability of a state.
    • Such causes do not have a rational basis to be explained in terms of a financial model; how do you put a price tag to press freedom?
    • The niche funding will happen from agencies that may be beyond the borders.
    • The duality of welcoming foreign investments (which takes away capital gains and dividends) while actively discouraging foreign aid to charities is staring us in the face.

    Conclusion

    The government needs to ensure that the regulations do not create hurdles for the civil society organisations in their functioning and receiving fundings.

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  • [pib] What is Nai Talim?

    The Vice President of India has said that the New Education Policy follows the ‘Nai Talim’ of Mahatma Gandhi by giving importance to the mother tongue as the medium of instruction at the school level.

    What is Nai Talim?

    • The phrase Nai Talim is a combination of two words- Nai Means ‘New’ and Talim – a Urdu word-means ‘Education’.
    • In 1937, Gandhiji introduced the concept of Nai Talim in India. It aimed to achieve Gram Swaraj (liberation of villages).
    • In short, Gandhiji dreamed to make all villages independent; and self-reliant.
    • It is an approach to the total personality development of body, mind and spirit and was based on four principles namely:
    1. Education or learning in mother tongue along with handicraft work,
    2. Work should be linked with most useful vocational needs of the locality,
    3. Learning should be linked with vocational work, and
    4. Work should be socially useful and productive needed for living.

    Gandhiji and Education

    • Gandhi’s first experiments in education began at the Tolstoy Farm ashram in South Africa.
    • It was much later, while living at Sevagram (Wardha) and in the heat of the Independence struggle, that Gandhi wrote his influential article in Harijan about education.
    • In it, he mapped out the basic pedagogy (or teaching) with focus on:
    1. Lifelong character of education,
    2. Social character and
    3. A holistic process
    • Thus, for Gandhi, education is ‘the moral development of the person’, a process that is by definition ‘lifelong’.
    • He believed the importance of role of teacher in the learning process.

     

    Try this PYQ from CSP 2020:

     

    Q. One common agreement between Gandhism and Marxism is

    (a) The final goal of a stateless society

    (b) Class struggle

    (c) Abolition of private property

    (d) Economic determinism

     

     

    [wpdiscuz-feedback id=”3i9ahv7hw9″ question=”Please leave a feedback on this” opened=”1″]Post your answers here:[/wpdiscuz-feedback]

     

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  • Aiding in governance

    Context

    The collaborative effort of markets and the Government are key to the development of a country.

    How CSR law aids citizenry-private partnerships

    • Section 135 of the Companies Act mandates corporates who are beyond a certain level of profits and turnover to pay at least 2% of their net profits before tax to the development space.
    • Scope for collaboration with Non-state actors: This law gives corporates the necessary impetus to collaborate with non-state actors like Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs). 
    • Using the depth of engagement of non-state actors: Non-state actors, because of their depth of engagement with communities, bring patient capital to corporate board rooms and help the state, too, by engaging in welfare activities.
    • Role of NGOs: A key pillar of democratic governance is citizens’ power to question the state.
    • NGOs and voluntary groups/organisations have played a significant role in building capacities of citizens to hold governments accountable.
    • Hence, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) grants, have assumed importance to provide the much-needed sustenance to NGOs and CSOs as key players in non-state governance.

    How Non-state actors differ from Governments

    • Risk-averse nature of bureaucracy: The Indian bureaucratic elite have little appetite for risk-taking and innovation because of the constant changing goalposts of their politician-bosses or because the quantum of work is more than what they can efficiently handle.
    • Bureaucrats, therefore, often take recourse to the status quo even if it is to at least get some work done and not stall everything by campaigning for change, especially in the realm of governance.
    • Fear of failure: There is also the fear of failure, with its deep-rooted consequence of non-risk-takers smoothly sailing to the top posts.
    • In such contexts, it is the non-state actor who innovates and creates breakthrough models of community engagement.
    • They also become the vehicle to carry the demands of people to formal institutions.
    • We saw this in the case of the Right to Information (RTI) campaign, which became a law after decades-long efforts by NGOs.
    • It is common knowledge that the District Collector calls on vetted NGOs/CSOs to implement various schemes during the normal course of the day or to step in at short notice when calamities strike.
    • When non-state actors take a large load off the state’s shoulder, the state can focus more on governance.
    • Research shows that it is the synergy of NGOs, Government and corporates which is the key to the development.

    Conclusion

    The CSR law has made the corporate world not only clean its own mess but has also created a legal framework for corporates to work with NGOs and CSOs. NGOs and CSOs in India, will play a major role in mobilising citizen action to right various wrongs.

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  • HC allows woman to terminate 28-week pregnancy

    The Delhi High Court has permitted a 28-week pregnant woman to undergo medical termination of pregnancy on account of substantial foetal abnormality.

    What did the HC rule?

    Ans. Termination of Pregnancy is a matter of Right

    • The High Court said the woman cannot be deprived of the freedom to take a decision to continue or not to continue with the pregnancy, due to foetal abnormalities.
    • HC ruled that reproductive choice is a dimension of personal liberty that is enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution.
    • It stated that allowing the pregnancy to continue would have a deleterious impact on the petitioner’s mental health.
    • The petitioner cannot be deprived of the freedom to take a decision to continue or not to continue with the pregnancy in view the medical board’s opinion.

    What is the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act?

    • Abortion in India has been legal under various circumstances for the last 50 years with the introduction of MTP Act in 1971.
    • The Act was amended in 2003 to enable women’s accessibility to safe and legal abortion services.

    Termination of pregnancy is permitted for a broad range of conditions up to 20 weeks of gestation as detailed below:

    1. Threat to mother: When the continuation of pregnancy is a risk to the life of a pregnant woman or could cause grave injury to her physical or mental health;
    2. Child abnormalities: When there is substantial risk that the child, if born or dead would be seriously handicapped due to physical or mental abnormalities;
    3. Rape survivors: When pregnancy is caused due to rape (presumed to cause grave injury to the mental health of the woman);
    4. Failure of contraception: When pregnancy is caused due to failure of contraceptives used by a married woman or her husband (presumed to constitute grave injury to mental health of the woman).

    Conditions for abortion

    • The MTP Act specifies – (i) who can terminate a pregnancy; (ii) till when a pregnancy can be terminated; and (iii) where can a pregnancy be terminated.
    • There must be an opinion formed of a doctor, that the pregnancy would cause a risk to the life of the pregnant woman or grave injury to her physical or mental health.
    • When a pregnancy exceeds 20 weeks but not 24 weeks, termination is permissible on the opinion formed of two registered medical practitioners.

    What was the recent case?

    • In the present case, the woman has completed 28 weeks of pregnancy.
    • As the MTP Act does not permit pregnancy termination beyond 24 weeks, she approached the court.
    • Various anomalies were found in the heart of the foetus in the foetal ECG.

    Key issues

    There are differing opinions with regard to allowing abortions.

    • One opinion is that terminating a pregnancy is the choice of the pregnant woman and a part of her reproductive rights.
    • The other is that the state has an obligation to protect life, and hence should provide for the protection of the foetus.
    • Across the world, countries set varying conditions and time limits for allowing abortions, based on foetal health, and risk to the pregnant woman.

    Conclusion

    • Access to abortion facilities is limited not just by legislative barriers but also the fear of judgment from medical practitioners.
    • It is imperative that healthcare providers be sensitized towards being scientific, objective and compassionate in their approach to abortions.

    Also read

     

    Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Amendment Bill, 2020

     

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  • Centre notifies new rules for Consumer Panels

    The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food, and Public Distribution has notified monetary jurisdiction for various Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (CDRC) under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019.

    What are the new changes?

    • The Centre has notified new rules to revise pecuniary jurisdiction for entertaining consumer complaints at district, state and national level commissions, a move aimed at fast disposal of cases.
    • The NCDRC will now have jurisdiction to entertain consumers’ complaints where the value of the goods or services exceeds Rs 2 crore as against the earlier limit of over Rs 10 crore.
    • The state commissions will have jurisdiction to similar complaints with value of goods or services between Rs 50 lakh and Rs 2 crore, and the National Commission over Rs 2 crore.
    • District commissions have jurisdiction to entertain complaints where value of goods or services paid as consideration does not exceed Rs 1 crore.

    Legal basis of these changes

    • The Act provides a “three-tier quasi-judicial mechanism” for redress of consumer disputes: district commissions, state commissions, and the national commission.
    • The law also provides pecuniary jurisdiction of each tier of consumer commission.

    Benefits of the move

    • Fast-track disposal of cases: Reduction of limit of pecuniary jurisdiction of district and state commissions will reduce workload at these two tiers of dispute resolution system, and thereby reduce pendency at these two levels.
    • Easy litigation: Besides, with E-Dakhil in place, consumers can take their complaints to a state or national commission without visiting the commission physically.

    Back2Basics: Features of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019

    [1] Definition of consumer

    • A consumer is defined as a person who buys any good or avails a service for a consideration.
    • It does not include a person who obtains a good for resale or a good or service for commercial purpose.
    • It covers transactions through all modes including offline, and online through electronic means, teleshopping, multi-level marketing or direct selling.

    [2] Rights of consumers

    Six consumer rights have been defined in the Bill, including the right to:

    • be protected against marketing of goods and services which are hazardous to life and property
    • be informed of the quality, quantity, potency, purity, standard and price of goods or services
    • be assured of access to a variety of goods or services at competitive prices and
    • seek redressal against unfair or restrictive trade practices

    [3] Central Consumer Protection Authority

    • The central government will set up a Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) to promote, protect and enforce the rights of consumers.
    • It will regulate matters related to violation of consumer rights, unfair trade practices, and misleading advertisements.
    • The CCPA will have an investigation wing, headed by a Director-General, which may conduct inquiry or investigation into such violations.

    [4] Penalties for misleading advertisement

    • The CCPA may impose a penalty on a manufacturer or an endorser of up to Rs 10 lakh and imprisonment for up to two years for a false or misleading advertisement.
    • In case of a subsequent offence, the fine may extend to Rs 50 lakh and imprisonment of up to five years.
    • CCPA can also prohibit the endorser of a misleading advertisement from endorsing that particular product or service for a period of up to one year.

     [5] Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission

    • CDRCs will be set up at the district, state, and national levels.
    • A consumer can file a complaint with CDRCs in relation to: (i) unfair or restrictive trade practices; (ii) defective goods or services; (iii) overcharging or deceptive charging; and (iv) the offering of goods or services for sale which may be hazardous to life and safety.
    • Complaints against an unfair contract can be filed with only the State and National Appeals from a District CDRC will be heard by the State CDRC.
    • Appeals from the State CDRC will be heard by the National CDRC.
    • Final appeal will lie before the Supreme Court.

    [6] Jurisdiction of CDRCs

    • The District CDRC will entertain complaints where value of goods and services does not exceed Rs one crore.
    • The State CDRC will entertain complaints when the value is more than Rs one crore but does not exceed Rs 10 crore.
    • Complaints with value of goods and services over Rs 10 crore will be entertained by the National CDRC.

    [7] Product liability

    • Product liability means the liability of a product manufacturer, service provider or seller to compensate a consumer for any harm or injury caused by a defective good or deficient service.
    • To claim compensation, a consumer has to prove any one of the conditions for defect or deficiency, as given in the Bill.

     

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