50% deposit of decreed amount to file appeals not retrospective: NCDRC

The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) has achieved away with the requirement of asking people or corporations to deposit half the fee ordered by the State Consumer Dispute Redressal Commissions as a precondition for admitting their appeals.

The Commission mentioned that this situation was launched within the Consumer Protection Act on July 20, 2020 and gained’t apply to complaints or orders handed earlier than this date.

The new situation was inserted as an modification to Section 51(1) of the newly amended Consumer Protection Act 2019 and was challenged by a number of people and corporations earlier than a two-member bench of the NCDRC.

The new situation said thus, “Provided further that no appeal by a person, who is required to pay any amount in terms of an order of the State Commission, shall be entertained by the National Commission unless the appellant has deposited 50% of that amount in the manner as may be prescribed.”

The Commission famous that previous to this modification, events who filed appeals earlier than the National Commission have been required to both deposit 50% of the quantity required to be paid when it comes to the State Commission order or a sum of Rs 35,000, whichever is much less.

The Commission bench headed by President RK Agrawal and Member SM Kantikar mentioned, “We are of the considered opinion that now it is well-established that a right of Appeal is a vested and a substantive right which cannot be altered, modified by putting stringent conditions as that right of Appeal had accrued to the person concerned from the date of initiation of the proceedings i.e. from the date of filing of the Complaint before the appropriate fora under the 1986 Act.”

Since the amended provision was not retrospective in operation, the Commission held that the mentioned situation is not going to apply to complaints already pending within the District Consumer court docket or State Commission or National Commission. The Commission allowed the appeals filed by the petitioner people and corporations to be registered as all of them arose out of complaints filed previous to the modification.

Advocate Kunal Cheema who argued the case earlier than the National Commission mentioned, “This judgment will be helpful to all whose complaints were in existence before the new Act of 2019 came into force. So whenever the order is passed in future and they are filing first appeal, they will be able to do it as per the conditions of the old Act with a cap of Rs 35,000 and not 50 per cent of the decreed amount.”

The Commission was listening to six set of appeals filed by varied people and corporations towards separate orders handed by the State Commissions of Maharashtra, Punjab, Karnataka, Odisha and Karnataka. The appeals weren’t registered as they didn’t adjust to the amended situation of depositing 50 per cent of the quantity as directed by State Commissions. However, they’d deposited Rs 35,000 as required by the Consumer Protection Act, 1986.

The Commission allowed registration to all these appeals by stating, “We are of the considered opinion that the Second Proviso of Sub-Section (1) of Section 51 of the 2019 Act shall not be applicable where the person aggrieved is challenging the order passed by the State Commission in an appeal arising out of a complaint case filed prior to 20/24 July 2020 when the 2019 Act came into operation/was enforced.”