PANAJI: Cases have been piling up at both the district consumer redressal forums, and as many as 441 cases have been waiting for disposal for over seven years.
One of the most important reasons for the pendency has been slower process of hearings, as forums do not have fulltime president and two members.
The latest data shared by the Goa State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission with the national panel shows that at present about 552 cases are pending before different consumer forums, and nearly 80 per cent of them are at the district level.
The pendency at the district consumer forums, which handle the cases involving the amount up to Rs 20 lakh, has been attributed to the increase in cases due to growing consumer awareness, strict implementation of due process of adjudication, scope for multiple appeals and absence of fulltime president and its members.
The data on pending cases till May indicates that there were 552 pending cases relating to the various sectors in the state commission and the district forums.
The data also shows high disposal rate of 96.41 per cent out of 2932 cases filed since the panel was launched.
Similarly, the data at the district consumer forums shows 94 per cent disposal out of 7274 cases received since they were launched.
There were about 48 cases pending for more than five years at the district forums, 107 cases were pending for more than three years and 278 cases for more than two years.
The disposal of cases within the prescribed time limit of 150 days has been low at 28.11 per cent in the state commission while the percentage is much lower in the district forums, which has stood at 5.75 per cent.
The state commission, which handles cases involving the amount from Rs 20 lakh to Rs 1 crore, has disposed of only 797 cases within prescribed time set by the Consumer Act out of the total 2932 cases received.
Out of the total 2268 cases filed since the inception, the South Goa District Consumer Redressal Forum disposed of 136 cases within the prescribed time limit.
On the other hand, the North Goa redressal forum managed to dispose of 257 cases between 90 and 150 days out of 5006 cases that had been filed.