The consumer awareness in India is still at a nebulous stage. The Consumer Protection Act was legislated in 1986 and consumer disputes redressal forums erected pursuant to the Act. However, the practice and procedure followed in these forums id perhaps not what was intended bythe legislature.

Section 13 (3A) of the Act states that every complaint shall be heard as expeditiously as possible and endeavour shall be made to decide the complaint within a period of three months from the date of receipt of notice by opposite party where the complaint does not require analysis or testing of commodities and within five months, if it requires analysis or testing of commodities:

It also provides that no adjournment shall be ordinarily granted by the District Forum unless sufficient cause is shown and the reasons for grant of adjournment have been recorded in writing by the Forum and costs to be awarded as a deterrent measure.

          In practice, however, final and conclusive adjudication by the forums within the prescribed time period, has almost never been heard of. The reasons. The usual problems which plague the civil courts leading to long delays and a burden of backlogs. Resultantly, the consumer disputes redressal is sluggish and ineffective. The system, contrary to the wise intentions of the law, ends up playing into the hands of the market mal-practitioners necessitated by greed and the consumer in fits off fury and frustration.

The clear divide between the legislative intention and actual justice dispensation procedure and practice  continues to remain unaddressed.

If the system wakes up to deliver on time, needless to mention that more and more consumers would seek redressal of their disputes. The system, once it functions in a more civilized fashion, would bring in more matters to the legal practitioners specializing in this branch of law and in these forums. More importantly, the legal system would be more professional in its response as required in this service sector. Needless to mention that on one hand when we are opening the doors of this country inviting more foreign business into the country, a country with the lofty goals of being a superpower in the near future, necessarily needs to relook and rebuild a civilized redressal mechanism which has more credibility in practice.