Whether Trust is 'consumer' under Consumer Protection Act? Supreme Court to examine

The Supreme Court is slated to examine whether a trust is a 'consumer' under Section 2(1)(d) of Consumer Protection Act, 1986 [Administrator Smt. Tara Bai Desai Charitable Opthalmic Trust Hospital, Jodhpur v. MDr Supreme Elevators India Private Limited and Others and connected matters]..Terming it an important issue, a three-judge Bench of Justices Abhay Oka, Ahsanuddin Amanullah and Augustine George Masih posted the matter for hearing on September 18."This is an important issue. There are so many matters which will come up on this," Justice Oka said today..The Court was hearing a batch of appeals against several decisions of the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC), all of which raised a common question of law.The lead matter concerns the Tara Bai Desai Charitable Trust, which had made a complaint under the Consumer Protection Act alleging a deficiency of service in the installation of a lift in the premises of the trust's hospital.In 2015, the district consumer disputes redressal forum allowed the complaint. However, the State forum overturned this ruling on the ground that a trust is not a ‘consumer.' The NCDRC also upheld the State forum order dismissing the complaint.Aggrieved, the trust had approached the apex court..There were also other similar cases where consumer complaints filed by public trusts were dismissed by the NCDRC on the ground that trusts were not 'consumers' under Section 2(1)(d) of the Consumer Protection Act.The NCDRC had arrived at this finding by relying on the top court's decision in Pratibha Pratisthan v. Manager, Canara Bank (2017) wherein it was held that "a trust is not a person and therefore not a consumer." Consequently, a trust cannot be a complainant and cannot file a consumer dispute under the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act, the Supreme Court had held in that case. .This view has now been questioned before the Supreme Court, which will hear the matter next on September 18. .[Live Courtroom Exchange]