Consumer courts establishment: SHC unhappy with authorities for failing to file comments

KARACHI: The provincial and relevant local authorities earned the ire of the Sindh High Court (SHC) for failing to file comments, despite passage of almost a year, to a petition seeking establishment of special consumers’ courts in the province.

A two-judge bench, headed by Justice Munib Akhtar, came down hard on the provincial chief secretary and Karachi commissioner, who had not filed their comments despite issuance of notices and directives since February last year.

The issue of non-implementation of the consumer rights law was brought to the court by Amity International, a non-governmental organisation (NGO). The NGO argued the consumer protection bill was provided for protection of the rights and interests of consumers in Sindh, adding that consumer courts were supposed to be established to address the complaints of the consumers.

The group’s representative, Imran Shahzad, claimed the consumer courts were functioning in all the other provinces except Sindh and were dealing with the consumers’ problems as per the law in their jurisdictions. He argued that the Karachi commissioner should depute all the deputy commissioners to check the prices and quality of essential commodities and if they find them defective or expired, the cases should be sent to the consumer courts for a trial against the accused sellers.

Shahzad claimed that shopkeepers across the province were selling goods of low and defective quality at higher prices because the consumer protection laws were not being effectively implemented. As a result, the public are suffering and paying exorbitant amounts to buy substandard items, he added.

Therefore, the court was pleaded to order the relevant authorities to implement the Sindh Consumer Protection Act and establish consumer protection courts in all the districts of the province.

The petition was filed on February 11, 2016, while notices and directives were given to the provincial chief secretary, Karachi commissioner and others to file their comments on the status of implementation of the consumer protection law.

During the hearing on March 27, 2017, the bench had granted a last chance to them to file comments. However, the judges found out that no comments had been filed by the respondents till date.

Therefore, they expressed their extreme displeasure over the failure of the relevant authorities in filing comments, despite granting them time again and again. The bench directed the chief secretary and Karachi commissioner to file their comments by the next date of hearing, which will later be notified by the office.

Source: The Express Tribune