Consumer protection act was introduced in 1986 to protect the interest of consumer and to check their exploitation from producer and the sellers. under this act, consumer forum have been constituted at district, state and national levels. this that has come into force from July 1, 1987 in all part of the country except Jammu and Kashmir . Jammu and Kashmir has introduced its own act for consumer protection. COPRA 1986 was amended in 1993.
The Supreme Court of India in its important decisions had bought medical service under the purview of COPRA. The Supreme Court has classified the Medical Services into three categories-
- Such Centre where free Medical Services are provided.
- Such Centre where Medical Services are provided to all on payment.
- Such Centre where free Medical Services are provided to some people and some are provided on payment.
The first category of above list is exempted from COPRA while the remaining two types of the medical service have been brought under the purview of COPRA.
On February 29, 1996 a Trail Court of Calcutta High Court declared COPRA as Ultra wives and cancelled its operation on writ petition filled by the Pearless general finance and investment company and Calcutta state electricity supply Co. Limited(CESC) justice Ajay Nath Roy declared this act as Ultravires of the constitution and cancelled it. As a result, hearing on various petition with all the consumer forum in the country came to stop.
The union government field a petition against the decision of the trial court. The division bench of justice S. K Mukherjee and Justice R. Bhattacharya of Calcutta High Court cancelled the order of the trial court and as a result COPRA again came into force with the immediate effect.
Consumer Protection Act
In order to promote and protect the interest of the consumer, the central government has appointed Central Consumer Protection Council, now Central Council (as per the Amendment Act, 2002 w.e.f 15-3-2003) under the consumer protection act, 1986 was amended in 2002. It is in the form of advisory board.
The main objective of the central protection Council are as follows -
- The right to protect against the marketing of good and series.
- The right to be informed about the quality, quantity and price.
- The right to be assured.
- The right to be hearded and to be assured.
- The right to seek redressal against unfair trade practices.
- The right to consumer protection.
