CONSUMER TO REVIEW THE CONCEPT OF APPEAL, REVISION AND REVIEW

At times it is observed that consumer when aggrieved with the order of consumer forum or commission  is in a flux as to what is the remedy available to him for knocking at the door of higher court .Number of advise he receives from the advocates but it is more important for him to understand what exactly he needs to or wishes to choose

Consumer Protection Act 1986 [Amended 2002] provides remedy of appeal and revision both  to the consumer if not satisfied with the order of the consumer forum. .Section 15 of the Act provides ;

“Any person aggrieved by an order made by the district forum ,may prefer an appeal against such order to the State commission within a period of thirty days from the date of he order ,in such form and manner as may be prescribed ”

Section 17(1)(a) gives State commission the power to entertain the appeal against the order of District forum

The above provision can be invoked by the consumer /appellant but have to fulfil the conditions specified for filing an appael .

Yet another option open to consumer is to go for revision also under section 17 (1) (b) of the Act provided as hereunder:

“State commission shall have the jurisdiction  to call for records and pass appropriate orders in any consumer dispute which is pending before or has been decided by any District forum within the state,where it appears to the State commission that such District forum has exercised a jurisdiction not vested in it by law or has failed to exercise a jurisdiction so vested or acted in exercise of its jurisdiction illegally or with material irregularity ”

Now consumer has to understand the difference between the APPEAL and REVISION before choosing the remedy for him

Appeal gives the consumer to open his case before the higher court on all counts –facts of the case ,law applied and evidence recorded .Every thing is to be judged by the appellant court as to whether lower court has considered all the material placed on record and had applied the law laid down in correct manner .However complainant cannot educe any new facts or evidence at this stage ,can only emphasize  for the facts earlier said which could not be considered by the lower court This is the general principal of law .

Revision is mainly on the point of jurisdiction of the court /forum and higher court is not to look into the matter in detail about facts ,evidence etc .This remedy can be invoked even before any order passed by the lower court/forum if forum had no juridction to deal with the case and while exercising the revisional jurisdiction ,higher court may issue appropriate directions also to the lower court /forum

The similar option is further made available to the consumer for filing an appeal as well revision against the order passed by the State commission to the National commission in the same manner prescribed under section 19 and section 21 of the act .

The difference between appeal and revision has been clarified by the apex court on number of occasions and recently Bombay High court has put special efforts and gone into details on the issue .Supreme court had defined the distinction as back as in 1995 while dealing in the matter of Lachman Dass V Santhokh singh [1995]4 SCC 201 wherein it was held;

“An appeal is a continuation of proceedings wherein the entire proceedings are again left open for consideration by the appellant authority .But in the case of revision ,it has no power to reassess or reappreciate the evidence unless the statute expressly provides ”

The same version is repeated by Calcutta high court in the matter of  Ajay Bhandra V State Consumer Dispute Redressed Commission ,West Bengal reported at 2002CTJ 505 CP 

AND ALSO RECENTLY by the Bombay High Court in the matter of R B Upadhyaya V State Commission for Consumer Dispute Mumbai which has made  two things clear

Firstly  a final order passed under this act is revisable under section 17 and also appealable under section 15 of the act .

Secondly there is a clear distinction between the revisional power and appellant power as already discussed above.

 Now important thing for the complainant  to understand is that appeal or revision lies only from the order which has been passed while exercising original jurisdiction

For example :consumer forums have original jurisdiction of twenty lacs .any order passed by the consumer forum can be challenged before the State commission by way of appeal or revision.  Original jurisdiction of the State commission is upto one crore and any order passed by the State commission exercising original jurisdiction of one crore can be challenged before the National Commission by way of appeal or revision

                            Power of REVIEW  under the consumer protection act is given only to the National Commission under section  22 of the act  providing that Nation Commission can review its own order if an error is apparent on face of record .It has to do nothing with the order on merits .

             Finaly order passed by the National commission exercising power under section  21 (a)(!) of the act are open to appeal before the Supreme court under section 23 of the act .

                Prior to the amendment 2002, number of appeals were being filed before the various High courts against the order from State commissions and also order from National  commission .Since Article 141 of our Constitution says that tribunals/ forums/ lower courts under the jurisdiction of a high court are bound to follow the order of the High court of that particular State,High courts of the State were also entertaining the appeals .Obeviously it was creating inconsistency between the orders passed by the State Commission ,National commission and the High court of the State In order to overcome this difficult situation ,special provisions were made in the act barring any appeals before the High courts against the orders of these consumer redressed forums or commissions  and it was set that appeal or revision whatever the case may be arising from the order of District forum can be filed before the State commission,from State commission to National commission and from National commission to Supreme court only. Henceforth                No appeal or revision can be filed before any High court except a writ against the orders passed by the  Consumer forum or Consumer Commissions

 

 

Dr Prem lata

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