Delhi High Court comes down heavily on tribunals

Delhi High Court comes down heavily on tribunals

The HC directs National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission to pronounce reserved judgments, orders in a time-bound manner as per the Supreme Court guidelines

The Delhi High Court (HC) has directed the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) to deliver reserved judgments/orders in a time-bound manner as prescribed by the Supreme Court (SC) in Anil Rai v State of Bihar [Sandhya Srivastava vs Dr Neelam Mishra] case.

The SC had said in the Anil Rai case that a judgement has to be passed with a period of six weeks of being reserved and not beyond that, while it has fixed the deadline of two months in a civil case.

The direction to NCDRC was issued by a single-judge HC bench of Justice Prathiba M Singh.

A Petitioner had reached the HC with her grievance regarding non-pronouncement of orders/judgement by NCRDC as her consumer complaint was pending before the tribunal for the last 15 years.

Order in the complaint was reserved twice in August 2018 and then again in January 2020 after fresh arguments.

The Court observed that the prescribed timelines ought to be followed by tribunals as well since the timely pronouncement of judgments and orders was a must for dispensation of justice.

"The above pronouncements would apply to Subordinate Courts and Tribunals equally, inasmuch as there can be no justification even for tribunals to repeatedly adjourn matters after hearing arguments and reserving orders," Justice Prathiba M Singh said.

The HC order further added that the entire purpose of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 stood defeated when adjudication takes 15 years.

"It needs no emphasis that the entire purpose of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986, which was supposed to provide speedy justice to complainants, stands completely defeated in a case of this nature where the matter has taken more than 15 years to be adjudicated," the Court said.

Apart from directing NCDRC to follow the timeline given by the Apex Court in the Anil Rai case, the HC also ordered that when pronouncement does not take place within six months of being reserved, an application filed by either party ought to be listed before the President, NCDRC within two days.

The NCDRC may issue a practice direction to this effect so that the same is complied with by the staff of the registry, the Court added.

In the present case, since the matter was listed on 23 February 2021 the NCDRC bench concerned was asked to pronounce its judgment within two weeks.