Class-action suits, mediation set to give teeth to consumer laws

NEWDELHI:BY April, consumers in India will be able to initiate classaction lawsuits and also opt for mediation under the new Consumer Protection Act 2019, which gives legal teeth to claims for damages over defective products or poor services.

These are among the two key new measures included in the amended law —cleared by Parliament in August — for which rules are being now framed, to bring consumer protection measures in line with a rapidly evolving marketplace.

Class-action suits, a legal tool that is widely used in western consumer markets such as the

United States of America (USA), enable an individual complaint of a faulty product or service to be treated as an “interest group” of other people in similar circumstances.

This type of legal suit can be invoked to recall an entire batch

of faulty products based on a single complaint.

If one lot of a consumer item, such as mobile phones or cars, has a common defect, a single complaint can trigger the recall through “class action”.

MUMBAI: A 75-year-old woman was allegedly strangled to death and her body found in her Versova home by visiting relatives on Sunday. Gulabi Narayan Shetty, a widow, lived alone in the building that housed Chaitanya Hotel in Versova. She is survived by her daughter, Manorama Shetty, whose 29-year-old son, Dhiran Shetty, has been detained for questioning. The police have filed an FIR against unknown persons. “Her legs, hands, throat and face were tied with a yellow sari,” said Sujata Shetty, one of the relatives who found the body.