Allahabad High Court intervenes so that vacancies in district consumer commissions do not pile up

The Allahabad High Court recently ordered for retiring members of District Consumer Dispute Redressal Commissions in Uttar Pradesh to continue in service until the Supreme Court decides on a legal challenge to the rules governing their appointment [Come On India v. Union of India and ors].A Bench of Chief Justice Arun Bhansali and Justice Vikas Budhwar passed the interim order on a public interest litigation (PIL) petition that flagged concern over the failure to fill vacancies arising in district consumer courts in the State after members retire. The Court was told that new appointments to the district consumer fora could not be made as a case involving a challenge to the validity of the rules governing such appointments was yet to be decided by the Supreme Court. The Bench observed that there is no certainty on when the Supreme Court may decide on the matter. Therefore, it directed retiring members of the district commissions to continue in their posts for the time-being. "As the timeline pertaining to outcome of the matter pending before the Hon'ble Supreme Court is totally uncertain and the posts in various District Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission would keep on becoming vacant on account of the tenure of the Members coming to an end, in view of the interim order granted by Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Ganeshkumar Rajeshwarrao Selukar & Ors (supra), on 21.05.2024, we deem it appropriate and, therefore, direct that those Chairmen and Members, who are still in service, shall be continued till further orders. The said order would be subject to the outcome of the directions issued by the Hon'ble Supreme Court," the May 31 order stated..The petition before the High Court was filed by a society named Come on India (petitioner). It had urged the Court to allow retiring presidents and members of the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (DCDRC) in Uttar Pradesh to continue in their positions until new appointments were made.Additionally, the plea challenged the validity of Rule 10 (term of office of President or Member) of the Consumer Protection Rules of 2020 which was introduced to govern the appointment, terms of office, resignation and removal of the president and members of State and District consumer commissions. .During the hearing, the counsel for petitioner argued that many DCDRC posts in the State were vacant, with more vacancies anticipated soon. The delay in making new appointments to fill these vacancies was attributed to ongoing litigation in Ganeshkumar Rajeshwarrao Selukar & Ors v Mahendra Bhaskar Limaye & Ors, which is presently pending before the Supreme Court. The Ganeshkumar case involves a challenge to the validity of Rule 6 (dealing with the constitution of the selection committee for appointing the president and members of the State and District consumer commissions) of the 2020 Rules. In October 2023, the Bombay High Court had struck down the rule, after which an appeal was filed before the Supreme Court. The top court is yet to finally decide on the matter. .However, the petitioner before the Allahabad High Court pointed out that the Supreme Court has already passed interim orders calling for existing consumer forum members to continue in service till further notice. Additionally, it was argued that unless existing members are allowed to continue past the retirement for the time-being, vacancies would eventually rise and consumer court cases would pile up..The Court noted that 31 district commission posts were already vacant after the retirement of members, and that the number would rise to 109 vacancies by December this year. The Court proceeded to order retiring members of the district consumer commissions to continue in service till further orders."The said order would be subject to the outcome of the directions issued by the Hon'ble Supreme Court," the High Court added. .The matter will be heard next on July 12. Advocate Shivam Shukla and Vinod Kumar appeared for petitioner.ASGI Archit Mehrotra, ACSC AK Goyal and SC Seema Agarwal appeared for respondents..[Read Order]