Punjab and Haryana high court: Extend tenure of consumer panel members in both states, UT

The Punjab and Haryana high court has ordered extension of tenure of consumer panel members, state as well as district fora, in two states and Chandigarh, at least by six months.
The high court bench of justice Vinod S Bhardwaj ordered that within two months respective government/ administration would approach the Supreme Court to seek clarification/appropriate orders to initiate the process of fresh appointments, and once clarification comes, selection process should be completed within four months.
“…until such clarification/order are received from the Supreme Court, the present incumbent presidents/members of various consumer fora in UT Chandigarh, state of Punjab and Haryana, including State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, are permitted to continue discharging their duties/ functions on their respective posts and on the same terms and conditions,” the bench of justice Vinod S Bhardwaj ordered.
In 2023, the Tricity Consumer Court Bar Association had moved court seeking a direction to the UT administration for filling up the vacancies of members of state/district consumer disputes redressal commission. It had also demanded that present members be allowed to continue till the time fresh appointments are made. Subsequently, similar petitions came in respect of Punjab and Haryana and interim orders came to be passed allowing incumbents to continue till further orders.
As per the proceedings, after passing of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, rules for appointments were notified by the central government. However, a dispute on the eligibility conditions of members reached the Supreme Court in 2021 and acting on the same in 2023, the apex court laid down the procedure for these appointments. In May 2023, the Centre filed a review plea which was dismissed. Thereafter, in September 2023 the Centre introduced some changes in the appointment rules. However, it also came before the court that another review petition on the issue is still pending in the SC and due to this, appointment process of president/members in the consumer fora is held up.
As the governments/ UT administration also agreed that they do not have object to continuation of the present members, the court ordered for the same stating that ordinarily it would not be inclined to grant extension to any public office beyond the mandated tenure. However, as the case relates to the functioning of the entire dispute resolution mechanism, it is agreeing for the same. It noted that barring one member, the tenure of all others in both the states and Chandigarh is either over or going to be over in the next few months. “…the functioning of the consumer fora would thus come to a complete halt, leaving the litigants remediless,” it said.
“The nature of dispute often brought before the consumer commissions is by individual(s)/marginalised consumers for seeking expeditious redressal of their grievance and highlighting the deficiencies/ shortcomings in the services offered to them and for which they have already paid the consideration. Such litigants would then be left in a lurch for an indefinite period and with no respite. Such a situation cannot be acceptable to the process of law that a statutory remedy provided and prescribed to a litigant be made non-functional, as any such act would be a denial of speedy justice to a litigant,” the court further recorded.