Judicial Review of the Consumer Commissions

In one line

A High Court may correct a Commission under articles 226 and 227, the Supreme Court hears appeals from the National Commission's original orders, and neither an arbitration clause nor a special statute keeps a consumer out.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: the orders of the Consumer Commissions are subject to the writ jurisdiction of the High Courts under article 226 and their power of superintendence under article 227, and to the appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court under section 67 in respect of the National Commission's original orders and under article 136 otherwise; within the Act the control is exercised by appeal, by the revisional powers in sections 47(1)(b) and 58(1)(b) and by the power of review; and the Supreme Court has held that the consumer remedy is an additional remedy which is not displaced by an arbitration clause or by the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act 2016.

The controls inside the Act

Appeal. From the District Commission to the State Commission under section 41, from the State Commission's original orders to the National Commission under section 51, from the Central Authority to the National Commission under section 24, and from the National Commission's original orders to the Supreme Court under section 67.

Revision. A State Commission may call for the record of a District Commission, and the National Commission that of a State Commission, where it has exercised a jurisdiction not vested in it by law, failed to exercise a jurisdiction so vested, or acted in the exercise of its jurisdiction illegally or with material irregularity: sections 47(1)(b) and 58(1)(b).

Review. For an error apparent on the face of the record: sections 40, 50 and 60.

Administrative control. Section 70: the National Commission monitors the State and District Commissions, and a State Commission the District Commissions in its State.

The controls outside the Act

Article 227. A High Court has power of superintendence over all courts and tribunals within its territorial jurisdiction, and a Consumer Commission is such a tribunal.

Article 226. A writ petition lies against an order of a Commission, though it is not entertained as a matter of course where the Act provides an appeal, because an alternative remedy is a discretionary bar.

Article 136. Special leave to appeal to the Supreme Court, which is the route where section 67 does not apply, that is, against the National Commission's appellate and revisional orders.

Say in an answer that the existence of a statutory appeal does not oust the constitutional jurisdiction; it only makes a court slow to exercise it.

The Act's own validity

Facts. State of Karnataka v. Vishwabharathi House Building Co-operative Society, (2003) 2 SCC 412, decided on 17 January 2003. The constitutional validity of the Consumer Protection Act 1986 was challenged on the grounds that its fora exercised judicial power without judicial members of adequate standing, that their summary procedure denied a fair hearing, and that they encroached on the jurisdiction of the civil courts.