Govt may tighten consumer laws

NEW DELHI: The government today indicated that it may be thinking on the lines of tightening penalty for defaulting industries in class action cases involving a large number of consumers.

Speaking at a function here to mark World Consumer Rights Day, food, agriculture and consumer affairs minister Sharad Pawar called upon trade and industry to strengthen their in-house redressal mechanism for resolving consumer grievances.

Simultaneously, he urged consumer fora to ensure that consumers received proper compensation and in class action cases where a large number of people were involved, the defaulter industry should be penalised in a deterrent manner.

Where such penalty could not be refunded to consumers, the amount should be deposited in the consumer welfare fund of the state/Centre as provided for in the Consumer Protection Act.

In countries such as the USA, class action suits against companies on consumer cases are a specialisation in law, involving huge sums of money in compensation paid out to aggrieved customers by erring companies.

Releasing a special postal cover to commemorate the World Consumer Rights day, Communications minister Dayanidhi Maran acknowledged that there was urgent need for better implementation of other enactments like the Trade Mark Act, 1999, the Copyright Act, 1957, the Patents Act, 1979, the Prevention of food Adulteration Act, 1954, and the Bureau of Indian Standards Act, 1986 for the welfare of the consumer.