B.S. Indrakala, who recently retired as a judge of the Karnataka High Court, has been appointed president of the Karnataka State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission. She will have five-year tenure.
Ms. Indrakala, who has over 29 years of experience as a district judge and around two years of experience as a judge of the High Court, has a tough task before her with around 4,000 cases pending in the commission and a large number of vacancies in the posts of president/ member in district consumer forums.
Most of the cases have been pending since the past two to three years even though the time limit to dispose of the cases, according to the Consumer Protection Act, is three to five months.
There were only around 400 cases pending in the commission in January 2008. Pendency increased thereafter, said advocate Umesh.
Ms. Indrakala’s another challenge would be to ensure appointment to the posts of president/member in various district forums.
More than 50 per cent of the posts in this cadre is vacant as the appointment process is embroiled in a series of litigations in the High Court, said an office-bearer of the Advocates’ Association, Bangalore.
Eighteen district forums have no presidents and nearly 9,000 cases are pending in the 31 district forums.
As many as 52 posts of the total 96 sanctioned in this cadre are vacant.
Many district forums are hearing cases once or twice a week with members of nearby districts asked to attend these forums on an ad hoc basis.
