Parliament Question: State and District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commissions

Government of India Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Department of Consumer Affairs LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3110 TO BE ANSWERED ON 11.03.2026 STATE AND DISTRICT CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL COMMISSIONS

3110. SHRI MANI A:

Will the Minister of CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD AND PUBLIC

DISTRIBUTION be pleased to state:

(a) whether the Union Government acknowledges the role of the State and District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commissions in Tamil Nadu including the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission in Dharmapuri in providing accessible, affordable and technology enabled consumer justice;

(b) if so, whether the Government has taken note of improvements such as increased e-filing, virtual hearings and higher disposal rates in several districts of Tamil Nadu including Dharmapuri, while reviewing pendency and average disposal timelines;

(c) if so, whether it is a fact that rising caseloads and limited sanctioned strength continue to cause delays in certain categories of consumer disputes;

(d) if so, the details of the steps taken by the Union Government to support timely appointments, infrastructure strengthening and digital capacity building;

(e) whether any district-specific interventions are proposed to further accelerate consumer grievance redressal in Tamil Nadu; and

(f) if so, the details thereof? ANSWER THE MINISTER OF STATE CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD AND PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION (SHRI B.L.VERMA)

(a) to (f) : The Consumer Protection Act, 2019 provides for a three tier quasi-judicial machinery at District, State and National level commonly known as “Consumer Commissions” for protection of the rights of consumers and to provide simple and speedy redressal of consumer disputes including those related with unfair trade practices. The Consumer Commissions are empowered to give relief of a specific nature and award compensation to consumers, wherever appropriate.

Further, as per Section 38 (7) of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, every complaint shall be disposed of as expeditiously as possible and endeavor 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.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 Department has launched “e-Jagriti” portal on 1st January, 2025, which aims to enhance consumer grievance redressal through a micro-service architecture, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning integration and modern features like faceless onboarding and role-based dashboards. It unifies existing applications (OCMS, e-Daakhil, NCDRC CMS, CONFONET) into a single, scalable platform, allowing users to file complaints seamlessly from anywhere with multilingual support. The portal is designed to provide a convenient, transparent and efficient means for consumers to seek redressal by enabling online complaint filing, digital submission of documents, online payment of fees and also supports virtual courtrooms, enabling the hearing of cases remotely and ensuring faster disposal while reducing dependency on physical infrastructure. These features address bottlenecks like geographical barriers, scheduling conflicts and manual interventions. Further, VC equipment for conducting hearing through video conferencing mode has already 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) including Tamil Nadu SCDRC. e-Jagriti has reduced reliance on physical proceedings and has accelerated justice delivery. The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) and State Commissions in Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Puducherry, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, and Uttarakhand achieved disposal rates above 100% after July, 2025. During the period 01.01.2025 to 26.02.2026, 9,499 cases were filed before the Consumer Commissions in the State of Tamil Nadu and 8,769 were disposed of. Out of these 9,499 cases, 2861 cases were heard through VC and 1954 cases were disposed of. During the period 01.01.2025 to 26.02.2026, the details regarding the number of consumer cases filed and disposed by the Consumer Commissions in the State of Tamil Nadu are at Annexure.

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. Under the SCC Scheme, the Department has released funds to the tune of Rs 13.93 crores to the State of Tamil Nadu for upgrading the infrastructure of the consumer commissions located within the State.

****ANNEXURE ANNEXURE REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (f) OF THE LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3110 TO BE ANSWERED ON 11.03.2026 REGARDING STATE AND DISTRICT CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL COMMISSIONS.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Commission Filed Disposed Sl. No. (also includes the cases disposed which were filed in the previous years) 1 CIRCUIT BENCH MADURAI 1116 282 2 TAMIL NADU SCDRC 1629 789 3 Cuddalore 108 137 4 Dharmapuri 229 223 5 Dindigul 55 123 6 Erode 162 194 7 Kancheepuram 360 376 8 Kanyakumari 195 197 9 Karur 73 60 10 Madurai 404 454 11 Nagapattinam 111 110 12 Namakkal 170 248 13 North Chennai 387 442 14 Perambalur 53 73 15 Pudukkottai 130 170 16 Ramanathapuram 48 65 17 Salem 247 225 18 Ariyalur 69 80 19 South Chennai 490 892 20 Thanjavur 337 358 21 Theni 140 145 22 The Nilgiris 38 38 23 Thiruvallur 217 221 24 Thiruvarur 282 152 25 Thoothukkudi 274 407 26 Tiruchirapplli 284 265 27 Tirunelveli 360 554 28 Tiruppur 138 148 29 Tiruvannamalai 157 123 30 Vellore 197 212 31 Viluppuram 260 239 32 Virudhunagar 146 131 33 Sivaganga 56 58 34 Coimbatore 577 578 Total 9499 8769 ******