Plea in SC seeks direction for filling up vacant posts in consumer commissions

New Delhi: A plea has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking directions to the Centre, states and Union Territories to fill up vacant posts of presidents and members of consumer commissions, saying "inaction" in making appointments was causing pendency of cases.

The petition, which has alleged that directions passed by various high courts regarding filling up of vacancies in district and state consumer commissions have been "ignored" by the authorities concerned, said there is a lack of proper infrastructure to run these panels smoothly.

It has also sought a direction to the authorities to provide proper infrastructure and staff to the consumer commissions as soon as possible and file a detailed report regarding this before the apex court.

The plea, filed by law student SaloniGautam, claimed that inaction of the authorities in filling up the vacant posts has led to the "violation of the right to speedy disposal of cases".

"Petitioner is filing this PIL....challenging inaction of governments in appointing president, members and staff before district consumer dispute redressal commissions and state consumer disputes redressal commissions across India, which is causing pendency of consumer cases all over India and justice is getting delayed due to non-action of the governments across India and is antithesis to the Article 21 of the Constitution of India," said the plea, filed through advocate Om Prakash Parihar.