MADURAI: Every proceeding before Consumer Disputes Redressal Forums is deemed to be a judicial proceeding and, therefore, they can set aside their own ex parte orders on an appropriate application preferred by the litigants concerned, despite the absence of a specific enabling provision in the Consumer Protection Act, 1986, the Madras High Court has ruled.
Justice M.V. Muralidaran held so while allowing a civil revision petition filed by a farmer against the refusal of a Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum at Krishnagiri to set aside an ex parte order passed by it in 2008, dismissing his plea for compensation of Rs. 9.6 lakh from a Bengaluru-based tissue culture company for having supplied poor quality banana seedlings.
In the judgement reserved in the Principal Seat of the High Court in Chennai and delivered at its Bench here, the judge said: “It is my view that though there is no express provision in the Act or the Rules framed there under giving the Forum jurisdiction to do so, it is well-known rule of statutory construction that the Forum should be considered to be endowed with such ancillary or incidental powers as are necessary to discharge its functions for the purpose of rendering justice between the parties.”
He also stated that when the Consumer Protection Forum had got the power to decide a complaint ex parte under Rule 8(8) and 8(9) of the rules framed under the 2008 Act, it automatically implied that it also had got the power to set aside an ex parte order. Therefore, the consumer disputes redressal forums both at the district level and the State level could entertain the applications to set aside ex parte orders and decide the same on merits, he added.
