With great pleasure I take this opportunity to announce the new champions of consumer rights. 🙂
Pepsi Bottling Plant Fined
Ankit Jain, a lawyer who takes on Pepsi. Ankit had ordered two crates of Pepsi, when he noticed that some of the bottles were only partly filled. That is when he filed a complaint with the consumer court, the Pepsi bottling amount at Noida has been fined. The point as made by Ankit’s petition is: “With the kind of shortage being there in one bottle, the bottling plants must be causing total shortage of lakh litres each day. Considering that the plant fills 10,000 bottles per minute and runs for almost 8-10 hour per day, they must be making lakhs of rupees per day as unlawful gains and causing a corresponding unlawful loss to the consumer.” You can read the interesting accounts of Ankit’s exploits here. It is notable that this lawyer has taken Nirulas (the restaurant chain at Delhi) and State Bank of India to consumer court. May we have more lawyers like him.
ICICI bank fined for Rs. 85,0000-
The second hero of the week is Lt. Col Rajesh Yadav who had a savings account with Delhi branch of ICICI bank. He was erroneously billed by the bank for an amount of Rs 45,623 on a “renewed card” that was never issued to him!! Sounds familiar? Well, consumer panel fined ICICI bank for an amount of Rs. 85, 000/- on grounds of mental agony. Did I hear you muttering, “Serves them right!” 😀
It is true Pepsi and ICICI may not become exemplary companies overnight due to these paltry fines levied on them by consumer court. But I am sure they would think twice and reconsider when faced with another Ankit Jain and Lt. Col. Rajesh Yadav.
P.S: I was really sad when no one responded to my questions in my post Consumer Awareness II. But these two pieces of news cheered me up. It means the voice of consumer is not dead. There is still some hope. Amen! 🙂
Visceral Observations 
good collection….. I liked the first one….. but dont you think that if we are going to court like this, we will have to be a full time petitioner 😉 coz there are that much amount of small to huge things happening around us
hey..dinsan..it does not require much of time though for these consumer complaints….for example in second case…filing complaint is very simple…only drawback is hearing is delayed but it does not go as long as in regular courts..if there are laws, we will need to make effort..to make use of them..rights or laws wont exercise themselves to help us 🙂 …what do you say?
Good Blog with very informative stuff… Appreciate if we can have the process of taking someone to the Cosnumer Court laid out somewhere.
Since we do not know the same, we hardly bother to go about it.
Hope to hear you soon.
Rgds
J.Mehta
@J.Mehta: Hi, it is good to see appreciation..that is the motivation in the crusade of awareness..
I think that is a good point…to add….how to file complaint in consumer court…Ok..will try to present it here in an interesting way..if not that, I will drop you a email with detail…Keep on reading. 🙂
Update: Here is the information that you required:
Toll Free National Consumer Help Line Number is 1600-11-4000. This number can be called from BSNL/MTNL lines.
Some FAQs and details to file consumer complaint is here at: http://www.corecentre.org/faq4.
You can download a sample consumer complaint form at http://admis.hp.nic.in/ehimapurti/pdfs/cmpleng.pdf.
List of all consumer courts in India can be found at: http://www.corecentre.org/consumercourts_studies#delhi. There are also state specific sites for consumer issues. If you let me know a specific state you are looking for, I could try to help.
I have also emailed this information to you. Hope this information was useful. 🙂
I actually remembered that my dad has been going to the consumer courts. They got an electricity bill of 10 lakhs due to a faulty meter. Dunno if the case got solved, will ask him today.
Hey, Ish…do not forget to speak to him..find out how was his experience..chances are his case may have been delayed… 😦 sad part because most lawyers and judges are not keen to close cases…I almost feel I could interview him…why don’t you do it for me?
Dear Sir,
I was overwhelmed by the comments on the newsitem pertaining to my vase against ICICI Bank. I chanced upon your site while doing a random Google search.
I didnt know that verious people are doing a yeomens service to the cause of Consumer Affairs.I would like to contribute whatever I can towards this cause. Infact , Ihave started helping a large No of people who seek my advise on the matter. I was absolutely clueless about the Law when ICICI Bank duped me and to add salt to injury misbehaved with me and called me a thief which forced me to take up the case.
Being in Army initially I found it difficult to devote time but as I grew familiar with the Law, it was easy going.
I thank you once again.
Kindly let me know if I can be of help to the cause in any way.
Regards
Lt Col Rajesh Yadav
Poonam: Hello Rajesh! I hope I am not committing an indiscretion by calling you by your first name.
First, I must congratulate you for taking that dreaded step to go to a consumer court. I am glad you found my blog and commented in it.
I am convinced that your insight into consumer law can help several other consumers. As I have written in this blog post, you are a role model for consumers. You inspire them to stand up for their rights. You inspire them to take time out of busy lives to seek redressal whenever their right is impinged. It is this awareness I want to create by writing on these issues. Thank you for coming by, I look forward to more of your support and ideas. 🙂
Dear Consumers,
First of all i want to assure yu that it in not a difficult procedure at all. The Courts are extremely friendly and it does not take more than 3-4 appearances normally to resolve the cases.
I would be glad to offer advise to anyone who needs it. My email is rajyaduv@gmail.com
You may also like to visit my yahoogroup adhikaar which i have recently created for this purpose at following link
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/adhikaar/join
Poonam: Rajesh, thanks for your reassurance to the consumers. I am sure that tips from you are going to be helpful. I will act fast on my promise.
hi,i am going thru a lot of mental agony cause got my mom operated for the back (release pressure on nerves)however seems the doctors did not do a sincere job ,as the mri now suggests,as a reslt mom going thru lot of complications feeling very desperate on the issue,what do u suggest
Poonam: Sam, I am sorry to hear about your mother. If you feel you have been victim of negligence, you should file a case in consumer court with evidence. I hoped you have received my email about this. Hoping to hear again from you!
hi
Check this blog http://theeverydayblog.blogspot.com/2007/11/charging-over-mrp-at-airports-13.html
he is another champion of consumer rights !!!