Our Correspondent
IMPHAL, May 11
Manipur State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (MSCDRC)which remained non-functional since 2011 has been revived and made functional since February 1 this year with the appointment of Justice Asok Potsangbam(Retd) and RK Sudhir as President of the Commission and Judicial member.The appointment of the commission’s third lady member is also in the process, according to a commission source. So far the commission has disposed off 3/4 fresh cases including matter relating with Post Office etc, says state commission president Justice Asok Potsangbam(Retd) in an informal chat with the media in Imphal on Monday. The jurisdiction of the commission include the cases relating to all kinds of services hired/availaed of by a consumer including the services of Bank, Insurance, airlines, vehicular transport, passenger vehicles,train,medical,legal and professions,telephone,breach of contract,television network,carrier Act etc. Besides it also include purchase for a consideration, defect in the articles,sale of sub-standard products,violation of warrant,purchase of goods from the government and government sponsored companies, purchase of flat,misleading advertisement,unfair trade practice etc. On Sunday, Commission president Justice Asok Potsangbam (Retd) chaired review meeting has discussed the need for reorganization of District Forums of the state. “It was brought to the notice of the meeting that the Imphal district forum covers dual jurisdiction of both Imphal West and Imphal East districts,” says a source. The meet also view that the present Imphal district forum should be disbanded and bifurcated into two to align with the jurisdiction of the respective administrative/revenue districts of Imphal West and Imphal East while the Retired district judge may be appointed as president of the other district forum. The review meet also proposed the High Court to allow the district judges to function as president of respective district forums with 15 % of their basic pas as honorium. It may be worth mentioning here that the district forum can hear the consumers’ cases worth upto Rs 20 lakhs while the state commission from Rs 20 lakhs to Rs 1 crore. The National commission will hear the cases more than 1 crore.
