Parliament Question: Pending cases before Consumer Disputes Redressal Commissions

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD AND PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION DEPARTMENT OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 3571 TO BE ANSWERED ON 24.03.2026 PENDING CASES BEFORE CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL COMMISSIONS 3571. SHRI ABDUL WAHAB Will the Minister of CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD AND PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION be pleased to state: (a) the total number of pending cases before District, State and National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commissions, State/UT-wise for the last five years; (b) the details of sanctioned strength and existing vacancies of Presidents and Members in these Commissions; (c) whether Government has taken note of delays caused by understaffing and inadequate infrastructure; (d) the status of enforcement of orders passed by Consumer Commissions; and (e) the steps taken or proposed to fill vacancies, strengthen infrastructure and ensure timely disposal and effective implementation of consumer protection orders? ANSWER THE MINISTER OF STATE, CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD AND PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION (SHRI B. L. VERMA) (a) : The details of the consumer cases filed and disposed by the Consumer Commissions (State/UT-wise) for the last five years are at Annexure I. (b) : Under the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, it is the responsibility of the State Governments to fill up the vacancies of President and Members in the State Commissions and District Commissions. Further, as per Rule 6(4) of the Consumer Protection (Qualification for appointment, method of recruitment, procedure of appointment, term of office, resignation and removal of the President and members of the State Commission and District Commission) Rules, 2020, the process of appointments shall be initiated by the State Government atleast 6 months before the vacancy arises. As per Section 32 of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, if, at any time, there is a vacancy in the office of the President or Member of the District Commission, the State Government may, by notification, direct - a) any other District Commission specified in that notification to exercise the jurisdiction in respect of that district also; or b) the President or a member of any other District Commission specified in that notification to exercise the powers and discharge the functions of the President or member of that District Commission also.The details of sanctioned strength and existing vacancies of the Presidents and Members in the Consumer Commissions (State/UT-wise) are at Annexure II. (c) to (e) : As per Section 71 of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, every order made by a District Commission, State Commission or the National Commission shall be enforced by it in the same manner as if it were a decree made by a Court in a suit before it and the provisions of Order XXI of the First Schedule to the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 shall, as far as may be, applicable, subject to the modification that every reference therein to the decree shall be construed as reference to the order made under this Consumer Protection Act, 2019. As per Section 38 (7) of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, every complaint shall be disposed of as expeditiously as possible and endeavour shall be made to decide the complaint within a period of three months from the date of receipt of notice by opposite party where the complaint does not require analysis or testing of commodities and within five months, if it requires analysis or testing of commodities. To serve the interest of speedy justice to the end consumers, Consumer Protection Act states that no adjournment shall ordinarily be granted by the consumer commissions unless sufficient cause is shown and the reasons for grant of adjournment have been recorded in writing by the Commission. The responsibility for establishment of Consumer Commissions in the States as well as providing all necessary infrastructure for their effective functioning rests with the State Governments. However, the Central Government has been extending financial assistance under the Strengthening of Consumer Commissions (SCC) Scheme to the State Governments to meet the gaps in resources for ensuring a basic minimum infrastructure (both building and non-building) required for the effective functioning of the Consumer Commissions and for honouring the shared responsibility of consumer protection. Under the SCC scheme, the Central Government’s assistance for building purposes, is limited to creation of built up area of 5,000 square feet in respect of a District Commission building and 11,000 square feet in respect of a State Commission building, which include 1000 square ft. for construction of a Mediation Centre (both for State Commission and District Commission). Assistance for non-building assets is released within the overall cost ceiling of Rs. 25.00 lakh in respect of a State Commission and Rs. 10.00 lakh in respect of a District Commission, irrespective of the location of the Consumer Commission. The Department of Consumer Affairs also administers a scheme titled “Computerization & Computer Networking of Consumer Commissions” (CONFONET), under which, IT infrastructure of consumer commissions is strengthened by way of providing computer hardware, software and technically skilled manpower. Under this scheme, VC equipment for conducting hearing through video conferencing mode has been installed and made functional at 10 benches of the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) and 35 benches of State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commissions (SCDRCs). ****ANNEXURE- I ANNEXURE REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PART (a) OF RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3571 FOR 24.03.2026 REGARDING PENDING CASES BEFORE CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL COMMISSIONS. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sl. Year 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 No. State Name Number of Cases Number of Cases Number of Cases Number of Cases Number of Cases Filed Disposed Filed Disposed Filed Disposed Filed Disposed Filed Disposed (also (also (also (also (also includes includes includes includes includes the cases the cases the cases the cases the cases disposed disposed disposed disposed disposed which which which which which were filed were filed were filed were filed were filed in the in the in the in the in the previous previous previous previous previous years) years) years) years) years) 1. NCDRC 2697 1965 3655 4054 5816 6125 4546 6953 3402 4908 2. AND AMAN AND 11 2 NICOBAR 21 24 23 36 8 2 11 1 ISLANDS 3. AND HRA 3563 2618 1648 471 2678 3372 3398 3942 3434 2672 PRADESH 4. ARU NACHAL 26 26 14 9 25 19 39 30 40 26 PRADESH 5. ASS AM 335 213 554 608 553 511 552 552 513 408 6. BIH AR 2745 808 5277 3047 4279 4874 3928 3293 3268 3153 7. CHA NDIGARH 2149 1180 2135 1655 1782 2625 1741 1902 1406 1810 8. CHH ATTISGARH 3464 2147 2829 2356 3403 4662 3077 4817 2791 4032 9. DEL HI 4053 1778 5031 5106 6063 8545 6418 6525 5574 5204 10. DAD RA AND 0 0 NAGAR HAVELI 12 0 19 2 31 0 19 0 AND DAMAN AND DIU 11. GOA 271 183 177 178 219 365 285 231 288 213 12. GUJ ARAT 14944 9751 14676 16143 17634 17226 18152 12583 18280 12553 13. HAR YANA 10364 4567 11959 9002 13251 11795 13214 9674 12385 9676 14. HIM ACHAL 2280 1845 1038 811 2267 1796 2415 2104 2280 2154 PRADESH 15. JHA RKHAND 678 76 1923 2106 1703 2028 1389 1387 1261 880 16. JAM MU & 317 84 0 0 12 0 31 3 46 160 KASHMIR 17. KAR NATAKA 7066 7968 9035 11939 10435 12538 11872 10244 10630 10923 18. KER ALA 4974 3719 6121 7198 8473 6700 12003 6778 12018 8130 19. LAK SHADWEEP 0 0 0 0 4 0 2 2 2 0 20. MAD HYA 10548 13800 17449 9158 16340 21091 11976 18309 10624 14885 PRADESH 21. MAH ARASHTRA 20987 13073 22607 16757 18523 7632 15918 14939 16434 14937 22. MAN IPUR 30 18 74 60 50 62 91 35 127 91 23. MEG HALAYA 31 20 67 186 55 60 68 50 56 60 24. MIZ ORAM 56 113 67 108 64 53 99 67 125 55 25. NAG ALAND 21 3 15 16 14 15 28 3 23 14 26. ODI SHA 3426 2562 4105 5206 5924 7174 5844 4911 5631 3948 27. PUD UCHERRY 48 2 45 55 95 145 157 169 172 174 28. PUN JAB 8478 8821 8151 8173 6966 8652 8536 6815 6206 7280 29. RAJ ASTHAN 14775 11341 14812 11491 13662 12341 12397 10741 11975 12473 30. SIKK IM 16 19 27 10 56 26 87 29 20 1 31. TAM IL NADU 2485 1231 7086 10026 7348 9079 8224 7494 8356 7359 32. TEL ANGANA 3533 2566 4378 5390 3972 4571 4405 3974 3605 3300 33. TRIP URA 270 182 512 596 225 256 243 162 286 122 34. UTT ARAKHAND 1659 1327 2217 2224 1102 929 709 548 939 1807 35. UTT AR PRADESH 14988 13414 20428 25782 19023 25657 17733 19630 16550 15751 36. WES T BENGAL 4687 2219 6353 7080 5692 6743 5009 3915 3828 2944 Total 149412 101739 175680 182868 174284 185779 173181 158321 162896 150581ANNEXURE -II ANNEXURE REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PART (b) OF RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3571 FOR 24.03.2026 REGARDING PENDING CASES BEFORE CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL COMMISSIONS. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- S. Commission President Member No. Sanctioned Post Vacant Post Sanctioned Post Vacant Post 1. N ational Consumer 1 0 11 2 Disputes Redressal Commission S. Commission State Consumer Disputes Redressal District Consumer Disputes Redressal No. Commission (SCDRC) Commission (DCDRC) President Member President Member Vacan Sanctione Vacan Sanctione Vacan Sanctione Vacant Sanctioned t Post d Post t Post d Post t Post d Post Post Post 1. A &N Island (UT) 1 1 4 0 1 0 2 2 2. A ndhra Pradesh 1 1 4 2 17 3 34 3 3. A runachal Pradesh 1 1 2 2 27 0 36 17 4. A ssam 1 1 4 3 23 6 46 15 5. B ihar 1 0 4 3 38 30 76 57 6. C handigarh (UT) 1 0 4 1 2 0 4 0 7. C hhattisgarh 1 0 4 4 23 13 54 22 8. D &N Haveli and 1 1 4 3 1 1 2 1 D&D (UT) 9. D elhi (UT) 1 0 4 2 10 2 20 5 10. G oa 1 1 4 2 2 0 4 0 11. G ujarat 1 1 8 3 43 31 86 58 12. H aryana 1 0 4 1 22 4 44 8 13. H imachal Pradesh 1 0 2 0 4 0 24 9 14. J &K (UT) 1 1 4 1 10 6 20 10 15. J harkhand 1 1 4 4 24 21 48 41 16. K arnataka 1 0 8 7 33 15 66 13 17. K erala 1 0 4 3 14 12 28 26 18. L adakh (UT) 1 1 2 2 2 2 4 3 19. L akshadweep (UT) 1 1 4 0 1 1 2 0 20. M adhya Pradesh 1 0 5 4 25 6 102 35 21. M aharashtra 1 0 11 3 41 12 82 24 22. M anipur 1 1 4 2 3 0 6 6 23. M eghalaya 1 0 4 0 7 0 14 1 24. M izoram 1 1 4 2 10 1 22 10 25. N agaland 1 0 2 0 16 0 32 10 26. O disha 1 1 4 0 31 18 62 42 27. P uducherry (UT) 1 1 4 2 1 0 2 0 28. P unjab 1 1 4 2 23 7 46 15 29. R ajasthan 1 0 10 1 45 10 90 37 30. S ikkim 1 1 4 2 6 0 12 0 31. T amilnadu 1 0 5 5 30 7 64 18 32. T elangana 1 0 4 0 12 2 24 1 33. T ripura 1 1 2 0 4 0 8 3 34. U ttarakhand 1 1 4 1 13 9 26 3 35. U ttar Pradesh 1 0 8 7 79 22 158 37 36. W est Bengal 1 0 10 5 26 19 52 24 Total 36 19 167 79 669 260 1402 556 *****