Delhi High Court directs NCDRC to pronounce reserved judgments, orders in a time-bound manner

The Delhi High Court has directed the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) to pronounce reserved judgments/orders in a time bound manner as prescribed by the Supreme Court in Anil Rai v State of Bihar [Sandhya Srivastava vs Dr Neelam Mishra]. .In Anil Kumar, the Supreme Court had directed that a judgement has to be passed with a period of six weeks of being reserved and not beyond that..In civil case, this time should not be permitted to go beyond two months, the Supreme Court had said..The direction to NCDRC was issued by a single-judge Bench of Justice Prathiba M Singh..The Petitioner's grievance was non-pronouncement of orders/judgement by NCRDC in spite of her consumer complaint pending for the last 15 years. .Order in the complaint was reserved twice in August 2018 and then again in January 2020 after fresh arguments..Relying on the case laws emphasising the importance of timely pronouncement of judgments and orders, the Court observed that the prescribed timelines ought to be followed by tribunals as well. ."The above pronouncements would apply to Subordinate Courts and Tribunals equally, inasmuch as there can be no justification even for tribunals to repeatedly adjourn matters after hearing arguments and reserving orders.".It added that the entire purpose of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 stood completely defeated when adjudication takes 15 years. ."It needs no emphasis that the entire purpose of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986, which was supposed to provide speedy justice to complainants, stands completely defeated in a case of this nature where the matter has taken more than 15 years to be adjudicated," the Court said. .Apart from directing NCDRC to follow the timeline given in Anil Kumar, the Court also ordered that when pronouncement does not take place within six months of being reserved, an application filed by either party ought to be listed before the President, NCDRC within two days. .The NCDRC may issue a practice direction to this effect so that the same is complied with by the staff of the registry, the Court added. .In the present case, since the matter was listed on February 23, 2021, the NCDRC bench concerned was asked to pronounce its judgment within two weeks. .[Read Order]