National Consumer Rights Day: Rights of Consumers
Consumer Protection Act was enacted in 1986 which brought serious consumer awareness in the country. The aim of this Act is to safeguard the consumer against exploitation like unfair trade practices, deficiency in service, defective goods, fraud, and fraudulence.
The Rights of all consumers are celebrated and promoted in the country by celebrating "National Consumer Rights Day" on 24th December every year. Although the country is still striving to highlight its national consumer movement and compete with the western world, still a lot of changes have come in place after the enactment of the Consumer Protection Act.
The Government of India has been promoting consumer rights through advertisements and other means.
Over the last few years, the economy of the country has transformed by many folds which resulted into rising market competition, innovations and new ways of reach to the consumer such as e-commerce and the market is expanding every day. The old ways of shopping and the reach of services have changed completely with the arrival of the internet. This certainly created a need for the Act to be revised and amended accordingly. Considering this, the Indian Parliament amended the old Consumer Protection Act by introducing of amendment in the act on 06th August 2019.
The new Consumer Protection Act, 2019 (CPA, 2019) came into force on 20th July 2020. The old Act, as well as the New Act, are contemplated by the Right to Information Act which has brought transparency in the governance processes. This has brought into effect the right to safety, right to information, right to choose, and right to consumer education.
The Government of India has established District Consumer Dispute Redressal Forum in every district of India. You have a right to appeal if you are aggrieved by the order of the district Forum before the State Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission. The Highest Authority for consumer Disputes is National Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission (NCDRC). State Commissions have their headquarters in every state. NCDRC is established in New Delhi. The NCDRC also holds its sittings in various parts of the country on a regular basis as circuit benches.
The website of the NCDRC is http://ncdrc.nic.in/.