A STUDY ON CONSUMER GRIEVANCE REDRESSAL IN RAMANATHAPURAM DISTRICT – TAMIL NADU

Public viva-voce - Alagappa University in partial fulfilment for the Award of the Degree of

Doctor of Philosophy in Commerce

Researcher

S. BALASUBRAMANIAN

(Reg.No.1690)

Research Supervisor

Dr. G. RAJARAM

INTRODUCTIONConsumer is the focal point in modern

marketing.

All commercial activities revolved

around him.

He is responsible for the culmination of

marketing activities viz sale.

the marketer is not in a position to force a

consumer to accept or purchase a

commodity or service produced by him

DEFINITIONA consumer can be defined as a person

who purchases goods or services for self

consumption. He causes disappearance

of the goods or service produced by the

marketer by consuming them. If anyone

purchases goods or services for reselling

the goods or services at a profit he

cannot be called as a consumer

SIGNIFICANCE OF A CONSUMER

Consumer determines what should be

product or service.

Consumer is a deciding factor in the

marketing activity.

Consumer is a king in the field of marketing

Unless the consumer is satisfied no goods

or service can be marketed.

Indian consumer is a king without kingdom,

and sometimes even without any crown.

THE CONSUMER PROTECTON ACT, 1986

The government of india by passing

Consumer Protection Act,1986.Three

tier system of Consumer Disputes

Redressal Agencies were establisted.

This act has paved the way for the

establishment of the District

Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

To safeguard the interest of the

consumer from the unscrupulous

exploiters.The Consumer Protection

Act,1986 was passed.

This study is under taken to evaluate

the performance of DCDRF in

Ramanathapuram district.

REASON FOR SELECTING THE TOPIC

Though a lot of studies has been

undertaken to analyse the District

Consumer Disputes Redressal Forums, in

India the Ramanathapuram District

Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum

remains virgin in this aspect and as a

sincere and dutiful resident of this district

the researcher has chosen this topic for his

study.

OBJECTIVES The objectives of the study are as follows:

To evaluate the functions of the District Consumer Disputes

Redressal Forum in Ramanathapuram District – Tamilnadu.

To analyse the opinion of the Complainants towards the

functioning of the District Consumer Disputes Redressal

Forum namely, 2005-2012.

To assess the qualitative performance of the District Consumer

Disputes Redressal Forum in the study period.

To study the comparative opinions of the stakeholders on the

functioning of District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum

and

To offer suggestions based on the findings of the study.

SCOPE OF THE STUDYThe study is confined to evaluate the quantitative

and qualitative performance of CDRF in Tamil

Nadu during the period of the study.

The study evaluate the quantitative performance

in terms of the number of cases filed, disposed

and pending and evaluate the qualitative

performance by analysing the attitude of

complainants, defendants, members of the fora,

advocates and office bearers of consumer

organizations towards the functioning of the fora.

LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

The study pertains to Ramanathapuram

District - Tamilnadu for the period 2005-

2012 only.

NATURE AND SOURCES OF DATA COLLECTED FOR THE STUDY

Both primary data and secondary data have

been used for the study.

Primary data have been collected with the help

of the questionnaire prepared exclusively for

this purpose.

Secondary data have been collected from the

records of the District Consumer Disputes

Redressal Forum in Ramanathapuram District,

that of the Government of Tamil Nadu and

India, books, journals, reports and websites.

DATA PROCESSING AND TOOLS FOR ANALYSIS

The data collected have been analysed with the help of computer,keeping in view the objectives of the study.For the purpose of analysis,appropriate statistical tools have been used:

1) Standard Deviation

2) Co-efficient of Variation

3) Chi-square Test

4) Garret Ranking technique

5) Trend Analysis

6) Percentage Anaysis and

7) Regression Analysis.

HYPOTHESES

The following hypotheses have been framed to ascertain the objectives of the study:

There is no significant relationship between the factors such as Age, Education, Income and Occupation of the Complainants and their attitude towards the method of lodging complaints with the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum.

There is no significant relationship between the factors responsible for the slow disposal of cases.

There is no significant relationship between the socio-economic variables like Age, Sex, Education, Occupation and the Income of the Respondents and the attitude towards the desirability of engaging advocates.

There is no significant relationship between the seven factors upon which the complainants act in favour of engaging advocates.

There is no significant relationship between the seven factors upon which the complainants are not in favour of engaging advocates.

There is no significant relationship between the socio-economic variables of the complainants and their attitude towards a proposal to establish DCDRF at sub-division level .

There is no significant relationship between eight factors upon which the attitude of defendants for the slow disposal of the cases in DCDRF Ramanathapuram.

There is no significant relationship between the factors upon which the desirability of defendants towards engaging advocates to defend the cases in DCDRF Ramanathapuram.

There is no significant relationship between the

opinion of beneficiaries on the DCDRF

Ramanathapuram encouraging consumers to

argue their cases by themselves.

There is no significant relationship between the

factors causing the advocates to seek so many

adjournments and delay the early disposal of

the cases in DCDRF in the study area.

SAMPLING DESIGN

Convenient Sampling method has

been used in the study for collecting

required primary data. Two Hundred

and Fifty Nine (259) male respondents

and 41 female respondents totaling to

300 respondents have been chosen

for the study. So the Sample unit

consists of 300 respondents.

OPERATIONAL DEFINITION OF CONCEPTS

To avoid ambiguity or wrong interpretation the following

important concepts used in the thesis have been defined.

Complainant - A consumer or Voluntary Consumer

Organization and in case the consumer dies his legal

heirs.

 Complaint – A written allegation by a complainant as to

unfair trade practice, defect in the product or service,

overpricing and sale of hazardous goods.

 Consumer – Definition for it has already been given.

 Consumer Dispute – Denial of the allegation by the

supplier of goods or services.

 

Defect – Any fault, imperfection or shortcoming in

the quality, quantity, potency or specified standard.

Disputes – The forum established by the state in

each district for consumer redress.

Redress – Setting right or rectifying a wrong either

by paying compensation or repairing or replacing.

Unfair Trade Practice – False representation of

goods or Services as to quality or quantity and

reconditioning second hand or old goods and selling

them as new one.

CHAPTER SCHEMEThere are seven chapters in the thesis.

The first chapter relates to introduction, importance of

the study, statement of the problem, hypotheses,

sampling design, limitations of the study, nature and

source of data and operational definition of concepts.

The second chapter reviews the literature available on

the topic both Indian and Foreign.

The Third chapter deals with consumer movement in the

world, India and Tamil Nadu, Consumer and

Consumerism, Consumer Protection Act, 1986 and

profile of Ramanathapuram District.

The Fourth chapter pertains to the critical evaluation of

the functioning of the Ramanathapuram District

Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, procedures for

preferring complaints, number of cases filed, settled and

pending disposal from 2005 to 2012 and the views of the

consumers as to filing of complaints and their disposal.

The Fifth chapter concentrates on awareness of the

consumer about their rights, evaluation of qualitative

performance of Consumer Grievance Redressal Forum in

Ramanathapuram District and the impact of judgments

on the consumer and the trader.

•The Sixth chapter contains the opinion of the

stakeholders on the functioning of the Consumer

Disputes Redressal Forum in Ramanathapuram

District as its subject matter.

•The Seventh chapter contains the summary of

findings, suggestions and conclusions and scope for

further research on the topic.

FINDINGS IN THE STUDY Though the consumer himself can prosecute the case

there is a feeling that appointing an advocate is

desirable as he can conduct it efficiently and effectively.

The idea of starting a consumer redressal forum in the

sub-divisional level is not supported much.

Majority of the respondents opines that there is enough

furniture though the space and staff available in the

forum is inadequate.

Undue delay is there in the disposal of complaints by the

forum.

The respondents are not that much satisfied with the

judgment delivered by the forum.

A large number of consumers feels that the Consumer

Protection Act,1986 is the best among legislations

enacted in India so far, for protecting its interest.

The business community is unhappy over the Consumer

Protection Act, 1986 and feels that it is detrimental to its

interests.

It is interesting to note that The Consumer Protection Act,

1986 has little impact on business community. It does

what it did before the year 1986, that is before the passing

of the Act.

It is heartening to note that the consumers are able to

have easy access to the Ramanathapuram District

Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum.

The environment of the Ramanathapuram District Consumer

Disputes Redressal Forum is much conducive to consumers.

The Ramanathapuram District Consumer Disputes Redressal

Forum does not follow the principles of Natural justice in

Consumer Disputes Redress.

The engagement of an advocate in consumer redressal

matters increases the cost of litigation thereby dissuading

the consumers from approaching the Forum.

The cost of approaching the District Consumer Disputes

Redressal Forum is far cheaper as compared to that in a civil

court.

Ramanathapuram District Consumer Disputes Redressal

Forum’s performance in the disposal of complaints from

consumers is not that much commendable.

SUGGESTIONS On knowing the actual state of affairs in

Ramanathapuram District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, naturally one is tempted to pose a question whether the researcher offers any suggestions for rectifying the shortcomings in its functioning and for ensuring that it does what is expected of it. The suggestions offered by the researcher can broadly be grouped in to five viz:

 

To the Government

To the officials of The Ramanathapuram District Consumer

Disputes Redressal Forum.

To the Advocates.

To the voluntary Consumer Organisation and

To the consumers.

 

To the Government Evolving some criterion for awarding

cost and interest to the complainant.

  Discouraging the filing the

unscrupulous complaints by the Consumers by punishing them heavily.

  Appointment of reputed persons in the

district as non legal members of the Forum.

Disposal of complaints as easily as possible and in no time. 

Increasing the frequency of the meeting of the Forum as much as possible.

Appointing a full time District judge instead of a retired one as the president of the Forum.

Payment of decent honorarium to the members of the Forum

Creation of better infrastructure facilities in the campus of the Forum.

Computerizing all the records and proceedings of the Forum. 

Monitoring of the Forum by theStateCommission at regular intervals.

Training the non judicial members sufficiently, So that they can function well.

Co-ordinating the functions of The District Forum, State Commission and the National Commission.

Extending the help of Legal Aid centre to a consumer Who can not afford to spend on preferring a complaint to the District Forum.

To the officials of District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum.

• Speedy and timely disposal of the complaints.

• Justice delayed is justice denied must be the Governing factor for the Forum.

• Creation of a separate monitoring agency to oversee the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum.

• Compelling appearance of the consumer only when it is utmost essential.

• Fixing a time frame for the disposal of

each and every complaint.

• Giving preference to old cases in the

matter of disposal.

• Avoiding frequent and innumerous

adjournment as much as possible.

• Granting a long time with a condition that

the case will be decided on the adjourned

day compulsorily.

To The Advocates

Seeking many adjournments by the

business man like civil cases may

be avoided, so that the complaint

is disposed of at the earliest

To the Voluntary Consumer Organisation

Creation of awareness about the rights

and responsibilities of the consumers

by organizing seminars and workshops

for the public often.

To the Consumer

Filing the case in the Forum without the assistance of

any lawyer so that the cost of litigation is reduced

considerably. For doing so it would be better for the

consumer for attending the seminars and workshops

organized by its authorities concerned.

Avoiding frivolous complaints against the

Government, Quasi Government and the business

houses.

CONCLUSION Adequate staff and number of working days are

increased its function would be highly appreciated by

everybody in the area.

The purpose of enacting the Consumer Protection

Act,1986 is to provide speedy and economic relif to the

grievances of consumers where as the present scenario

in the district is not that much commendable.

The Producers/Providers of service in the district must

realize that their activities based on social

responsiveness to the consumer needs would be highly

appreciated.

SCOPE FOR FURTHER RESEARCHThe following priority areas can be selected for further research.

1. Historical developments of Consumer Protection Laws in India

2. Functioning of Consumer Protection Agencies in India

3. Case Study of Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission.

4. Case Study of Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum

5. Role of Voluntary Consumer Organizations in Consumer Protection

6. Case Study of Voluntary Consumer Organization

7. Comparative study of rural and urban Consumer Organizations

8. Appraisal of Consumer Protection Measures adopted in different States.

9. Role of Business Organizations in Consumer Protection

10. Comparative Study of organized an unorganized Agencies engaged in Consumer Protection

Thank You