Supreme Court: Asks Centre on Consumer Forum Jurisdiction Criteria

The Supreme Court recently asked the Central government to explain how the jurisdiction of consumer courts should be determined - whether by the value of goods or services paid for or by the amount of compensation being claimed [Avon Elastomers v. Bajaj Allianz General Insurance]. A Bench of Justices KV Viswanathan and Arun Palli asked the Centre to file an affidavit addressing several anomalies flagged before it, arising from how pecuniary jurisdiction is currently split between the District, State and National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commissions.The Bench also asked the Centre to explain the reasoning behind a 2021 notification that reduced the National Commission's pecuniary jurisdiction from ₹10 crore to ₹2 crore.Justices KV Viswanathan and Arun PalliThe Court was hearing a petition raising the question of how such jurisdiction ought to be determined. Senior Advocate Gagan Gupta, appearing for the petitioner, argued that basing jurisdiction on the value of goods or services paid as consideration would lead to a host of anomalies and could leave several genuine cases of deficient service outside the reach of consumer forums altogether.To illustrate this, Gupta gave the Court several examples. He pointed out that a person who buys a car worth ₹2.5 crore, but has a complaint only about a defective windshield, would have to approach the National Commission to get it fixed. In contrast, someone who pays just a ₹40 lakh advance for a car and faces a delay in its delivery w