AGARTALA, July 21 (TIWN):The government unable to protect the interests of consumers who are at the receiving end due to the unbridled power of business enterprises. In practice, the consumers get deficient service even from the very government, be it the state or Union, or the consumer forums and the State Commission which are expected to provide relief to the harassed consumers.In Tripura there are five consumer protection courts – one at Agartala and remaining are at four districts. A total of 354 complaints were lodged by in 2014. Besides the courts are reeling under staff shortages. The usual tactics of lawyers of delaying justice on one pretext or other like just filing vakalat and not filing reply or making false promise of a compromise are not checked by the forums. As per the law, the opposite parties should file their version within a period of 30 days or such extended period by the forum of not exceeding 15 days but this rule is frequently overlooked.Instead of adopting and simplifying the process of filing complaints, many duplication are built into the process.For example, the complainant can directly file the complaint by way of affidavit instead of filing the complaint and thereafter being asked to file the affidavit. Similarly, the opposite party can file reply by an affidavit instead of filing reply and thereafter being asked to file affidavit.

The consumer suffers the most due to such an indifference of the governments and the hardships are prolonged adjournments, fatigue, frustration, increased costs of litigation which are aggravated in some cases where new appointees start fresh hearing of the cases.