The Department of Consumer Affairs has said it will refer pending consumer cases to the National Lok Adalat, slated to be held on November 12 across the country, for speedier disposal through settlement.
DoCA said it is in the process of collaborating with the National Legal Service Authority (NALSA) for inclusion of pending consumer cases in the National Lok Adalat.
“Groundwork for this exercise has been initiated and all the consumer commissions have been intimated to identify cases that have an element of settlement, and prepare a list of cases that can be referred to the Lok Adalat,” it said in an official statement.
Currently, there are about 6,07,996 consumers cases pending across various commissions. The NCDRC has about 22,250 cases pending. “Uttar Pradesh with 28,318 pending cases, Maharashtra (18,093), Delhi (15,450), Madhya Pradesh (10,319), and Karnataka (9,615) are among the states with the highest pendency,” it added.
The Ministry said it is also reaching out to consumers, companies, and organisations through SMS and emails. It has also done a video conference with Consumer Commissions, which have more than 200 pending cases.
“Data analytics has also been used to arrive at sector-wise distribution of pendency -- banking has a total of 71,379 pending cases, insurance (1,68,827), e-commerce (1,247), electricity (33,919), and railways (2,316), and efforts are on to settle these consumer cases on priority,” the Ministry added.