SPEEDY DISPOSAL OF CAS CASES BY CONSUMER
COURTS URGED
Shri Sharad Yadav,
Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution has
urged the consumer courts to provide speedy redressal to consumers
of Conditional Access System (CAS) on cases that might be filed
in consumer fora with its introduction from 15 July, 2003. Inaugurating
a Seminar " Towards a Consumer Friendly Cable TV System" organised
by Consumer Unity and Trust Society here today the Minister said
that he had already written a letter to this effect to the President
of National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) in
this regard. The Government of India brought into effect a very
comprehensive and progressive piece of legislation in the form
of Consumer Protection Act, 1986 which provided momentum and impetus
to the consumer movement in the country. This is a unique Act
which provide for simple, speedy in inexpensive redressal to consumers
against supply of defective goods and deficient services, the
Minister said.
Shri Yadav cautioned
the consumers and the media to be vigilant to expose any fraudulent
practices of unscrupulous elements in the trade associated with
the supply of CAS after its introduction. Only alert consumers
aware of their rights and responsibilities can protect themselves
besides making consumer sovereignty a reality, he added. The Minister
also expressed the hope that the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting
which has taken a pro-active role and stepped in to fix the price
of free to air channels is taking all care for the smooth introduction
of the new system of CAS in implementing the Cable Television
Network (Amendment) Act, 2003.
The Minister pointed
out that with the introduction of CAS the consumers might face
some problems such as cable operators insisting on installation
of Set Top Box even for free to air channels or not providing
proper services etc. Though the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting
has provided for complaints redressal mechanism, complainants
are free to approach consumer forums for seeking redressal, Shri
Yadav suggested.
As per the provisions,
the consumer courts are required to dispose of cases as far as
possible within a period of 90 days or 150 days, where the testing
is required. Till date in these consumer forums 20.22 lakh cases
have been filed out of which 16.77 lakh cases have been disposed
of, which works out to 82.91 per cent, he said.
