Untitled

SPOTTING CONSUMER EXPLOITATION IN INDIA The unique character of the market has well organised and highly professional producers and sellers on one hand and unorganised and unaware consumers with little knowledge, on the other hand, has made the consumer exploitation inevitable.

Consumer responsibilities are the obligation on the consumers to do certain things before buying goods or hiring services. In the present social welfare era, the relationship of suppliers and consumers are not merely governed by the margin of profit and loss in the market but by the rights and duties of both suppliers and consumers.

KNOW WHERE THE DECISION OF A CONSUMER COURT CAN BE CHALLENGED IN INDIA

If a person is aggrieved by the order of the district forum he can a file an appeal before the State Forum within 20 days of the passing of the order of the District Forum and similarly, an appeal can also be made before the NCDRC from the decision of the State Forum within 1 month of the passing of the order of the State Forum.

The Consumer Protection Act does mention that banking services fall within its ambit yet it is highly important to highlight that this Act was not explicitly enacted for the consumers of banking services but for consumers of any service including banking service.

RIGHTS OF CONSUMERS IN INDIA: 

The basic rights of the consumer in India are; 

 1. The right to choose from the variety of goods and services available in the market. 

2. A consumer is to be protected from any hazardous product being sold in the market. 

 3. The law now gives a legal right to every consumer to know the details of the goods which include the details about the; 

a. Quality 

 b. Quantity 

 c. Purity 

 d. Nutrition 

 e. Standard 

 f. Price and many more 

 4. If any of the rights guaranteed to a consumer are violated or infringed then the consumer has a right redressal as he can a file a complaint against such an infringement before a consumer disputes redressal forum. 

 5. The law now guarantees the right to consumer education to all in order to ensure that consumers are well aware of their rights and the duties of the opposite party. 

 6. This Act directly strikes at unfair trade practices adopted by the manufacturers and ensures that consumers are able to purchase goods and hire services at a fair price. 

7. Lastly, the consumers have a right to be heard in all decision making processes related to consumer interests. 

CONSUMER AWARENESS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Consumer awareness in general terminology means that a consumer must be aware not only about the information of the product or service but must also be aware of his rights and duties. The basic rights of consumers are generally summed up as follows;

Right to safety

Right to choice

Right to seek redressal

Right to consumer education

Right to be heard

Right to be informed

LEGAL REMEDIES AVAILABLE AGAINST COUNTERFEIT PRODUCTS

Generally speaking, counterfeit products may be defined as those low-quality products which are the replicas of the original products. counterfeit products have opened making it difficult to purchase real products without getting defrauded.

COMMON TYPES OF CONSUMER FRAUDS 

Since consumers have the right to consumer education, which includes the right to know even the frauds in the market. 

 Some of the common consumer frauds have been listed below; 

 • Fake products: This is a very common scam whereby replicas of known branded products are manufactured and consumers are made to believe that the product is original. 

 • Misleading advertisements: Running of misleading advertisement which makes one believe that the goods or services have a particular quality or other features which in reality are not present.   

 • Advance fee fraud: The consumer pays a certain amount of fees and he is promised in return some money, product or service or an offer to participate in a special deal but in reality, it is merely a means of monetary exploitation of consumers.   

• Identity theft fraud: In this fraud, the details of the consumers are accessed by someone else and he uses the credentials of consumers for benefiting himself. 

TOP 10 PATIENT RIGHTS YOU NEED TO KNOW

Patient rights are of paramount importance as they have a direct impact on the healthy life of a person. In simple terminology, patient rights are those basic rights which are lawfully made available to the patients in a medical care unit. These are also referred to as basic rules and conduct which are to be followed during a course of treatment between a patient and medical practitioner.

A few years back the Ministry of Health and Welfare proposed that a charter of patient rights be implemented by appropriate governments in the States for the protection of the patient rights legally in a codified manner.

For more follow the link.

BEWARE OF FRAUD AND CHEATING TOWARDS HOLIDAY PACKAGES 

Fraud and cheating it is highly important to highlight the frauds and cheating committed in the name of holiday packages. It has been witnessed that people have not only been cheated into non-existing flights but have also been defrauded into non-existing accommodations in the name of cheap holiday packages. Legal experts often state that one must not approach such offers which are too good to be true since these offers are ultimately the root cause of cheating innocent people by tricking them into irrelevant offers.

TYPES OF GST PAID BY CONSUMERS IN INDIA

The GST is also known by the name of the consumption tax and is levied on the supply of goods and services at each step in the production process. The different types of levies in GST are: 

• CGST: central goods and service tax and is imposed by the central government. This tax is charged by the central government on the intrastate supply of products and services. 

• SGST: state goods and service tax and is imposed by the state governments on the sale and supply of goods and services within the state. 

• UTGST: union territory goods and service tax which is levied on the supply of products and services in any of the Union Territories in the country 

• IGST: it stands for integrated goods and service tax. This is again charged by the central government and is imposed on the import of goods or services from one state to another. In this type of GST, the central government collects the tax and thereafter distributes it among the states. 

KNOW WHAT A NO COST EMI IS 

 In a layman’s language, no-cost EMI means the distribution of a particular amount into monthly instalments on which no interest is to be paid. But the same is not true in reality. The top banking lawyers in India while discussing the concept of no-cost EMI in India lay great emphasis on the circular issued by the Reserve bank of India in the year 2013 which laid down that the concept of no-cost EMI or zero interest EMI does not exist. While explaining the concept of no-cost EMI the RBI said that the interest element in no-cost EMI schemes is often camouflaged and passed on to the customer in the form of processing fee or cancellation of the discount offer. The bank receives the interest amount even on a no-cost EMI scheme because the RBI has clearly laid down that no loan can be offered without an interest being charged. It’s important to mention that the interest on the installments is not charged in addition to the total amount but it is adjusted from the total amount only. 

Medical Negligence and The Consumer Protection Act

Similarly, medical negligence is a tort but at the same time it is also a crime and it is defined as a failure on behalf of a medical professional to exercise reasonable skill and care as per the general standards. Therefore the basic essentials of medical negligence are; 1. An expressed or implied duty to take reasonable care 2. Failure on behalf of a medical professional to take reasonable care 3. Breach of duty has resulted in damages

If a situation arises whereby a project gets stuck for years without any genuine reason the legal options available to the person are: 

1. Filing of an application before the appropriate authority: If one's project is stuck the first option available is to file an application before the concerned authority who has withheld the project and know the reasons behind their decision.

 2. Filing of a writ petition in a High Court: If after filing of an application before the concerned authority a person is not given the explanation and the project is stuck due to unlawful demands a person can file a writ petition either before the High Court or before the Supreme Court. Thereafter the court may issue the appropriate writ directing the authority concerned to pass the project or to provide for the reasons for not passing the project. 

Whenever a consumer buys any sort of eatables from the market it has numerous details finely printed on the wrapping and surprisingly only a handful of consumers bother to read the fine printing on the eatables purchased by them. Very easily a person ignores the fine printing on the eatables and thereby overlooks his right to know. Reading the fine printing on eatables is highly important as these are published to preserve the right of a consumer to know about the details of the product. Before understating the importance of the fine printing it is highly important to know the things mostly written in the fine printing. 

The details mostly mentioned in the fine printing on eatables are; 

1. Name of food 

2. Manufacturers name and address

3. Ingredient 

4. Nutrition value 

5. Weight 

6. Storage instructions 

7. Manufacturing details 

8. Allergy and intolerance information 

9. Shelf life 

10. Price 

11. FSSAI mark and 

12. Helpline number if any 

Various rights and duties of an allottee/homebuyer are: 

1. Right to obtain information relating to the sanctioned plans, layout plans which are approved by the competent authority. 

2. Right to know the details of stage-wise time schedule for the completion of the project. 

3. Right to claim possession as per the declaration given by the promoter. 

 4. Every buyer has a right to claim refund from the promoter 

5. A buyer is entitled to be given all such documents and plans after the delivery of the possession by the promoter. 

 6. It is the duty of every buyer to make necessary payments in due time. 

7. Every buyer is liable to pay interest at such rate as is agreed for any delay in payments.