Consumer Education and Research Centre and its Cases solved and Resolved by CERC (Part I)

Consumer Education and Research Centre

Introduction

Consumer Education and Research Centre (CERC) facilitate and functions towards the development of the awareness of basic rights available for consumers by Educating and protecting them. It must be noted that the action arms of CERC for Consumer Protection are Consumer Education and Research Society (CERS) and Testing organization for research Chemicals and Health Hazards (TORCH) which carried out bulk of activities. CERC have their own complaint Redressal Forum where every consumer have a right to registered their complains and on the receipt of complaints from consumer CERC will try to approach at different forums where the jurisdiction of the complaint lies.  

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Complaint Redressal: -

During 2013-14, CERC received 718 Complaints from all over India, largely from Ahmadabad and other metropolitan cities. There were also complaints from small cities like Kollam (Kerala), Gondia (Maharashtra) and Kadi, Kheda and Kapadwanj (Gujrat). Out of 718 Complaints, CERC Processed 366 complaints during year, handled 485 complaints including 119 complaints brought forward from previous year. Of the 485 complaints, 155 were resolved through mediation/conciliation and 51 were taken up for legal action.

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Legal Action:-

It is only when all negotiations and mediation in a consumer dispute fail that CERS resorts to litigation with itself as the first litigant. The no. of cases decided between 1 April 2013 to 31 March 2014 were as follows: in High Courts (1), National Commission (3), State Commission (24), Forum (49) making the total 77.

        

    The number of new cases filed during the same period was as follows: in the High Courts (1), National Commission (10), State Commission (10) and forum (14), making total new of 35 cases.

In-house Laboratories: - CERC’s Chemical and Electrical labs conducting fee-based testing for right choice. Some of the Products are Chips, Marie biscuits, ice-creams, chilli powder, mixer-grinders, electric kettles and hand blenders.

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Objective: -

Complaints handling is a major activity of CERS. The Society receives complaints from all over India mainly related to defective products and deficient services. These major categories of complaints are regarding Mediclaim, financial services and investments, telephones and mobile network, internet services, housing, electrical and electronic products and vehicles. Some complaints are also related to online shopping and cyber crimes which are on rise.

            The main objective of the Complainants Department is to bring about a just and fair solutions on to the complaints. The department resolves majority of the complaints by contacting the parties on the phone, through correspondence and by calling both the parties to the CERS Office. When mediation efforts fail, we resort to litigation. The complainant is advised to exhaust his or her own avenues before approaching us.

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Jurisdiction:-

            CERS mostly files complaints in Ahmedabad Consumer court. In case of complaints which are falling under the jurisdiction of other consumer courts, if our mediation efforts fail, CERS advise the complainants to approach the suitable consumer court.

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Some of the interesting complaints solved by mediation are described below:

1.       SBI’s NRE customer is victim of fraud

Kamlesh Mirani held a NRE savings account with State Bank of India (SBI). When his wife Rekha checked the statement for June 2012, she was shocked to note that transactions of Rs. 1.83 Lakh had been made in two days. Her husband had not made the transactions. She immediately informed the bank about the fraud but was told that a valid debit card had been used and the transaction slips had the signature of the account holder. Her arguments fail on deaf ears. SBI closed the matter from its end. Disheartened, Rekha approached a leading newspaper which carried her story. She even lodged the complaint with the police. But her problem was not solved. Finally she contacted CERS. After several meetings, SBI relented and agreed to refund the amount.

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2.       ICICI Bank reverses charge on ‘fake’ credit card

Tarun Kumar Gupta received a call from ICICI Bank asking him to clear his dues against his credit card. Tarun was taken a back since he had neither applied for credit card from ICICI Bank nor received it. He was shocked to find out that the application form and supporting documents were fake and the signature in the form had been forged. Tarun was assured that he was not liable to make a payment. But two years letter he started receiving calls for settlement of credit card bill amounting to Rs. 81,365/-. His explanation that the card was not his was not heeded. Harried, Tarun wrote to CERS which approached ICICI Bank and asked it to issue a no-dues certificate to Tarun and cancle the card immediately. ICICI agreed to do so much to Tarun’s relief.

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3.       WR finally refunds amount for cancelled ticket.  

Geeta Kapoor had booked a 2^nd AC railway ticket for Ahmedabad-Jaipur using her HDFC master credit card. A day before the journey, she cancelled her unconfirmed ticket. She waited for over a month but still didn’t receive the refund. Her complaint was not attended to either in Jaipur or by the claims and refunds department, Mumbai. Tired of this apathy, Geeta approached CERS which sent several reminders to the authorities. Finally, after about eight months, Geeta was asked to send a copy of the Credit Card. Within a month, the amount of Rs. 1060 was credited to her account.

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Stay tuned for Next Case Laws attended and resolved by CERC.

To Be Continued…………