MP HC treats letter on consumer forum vacancies as PIL

Bhopal/Jabalpur: MP high court chief justice Suresh Kumar Kait has decided to treat a letter written to him regarding large-scale vacancies on the post of presidents and members of District Consumer Forum across Madhya Pradesh as a public interest litigation (PIL). Consumer activist PG Najpande had written a letter in this regard to the chief minister, which he decided to hear as a PIL.

In the letter written to the chief justice, Najpande had said in January, 31 out of 51 districts didn't have the District Consumer Forum presidents. This information can be verified from the website of the MP State Consumer Commission itself.

The districts where Consumer Forum presidents are functioning, they have additional charge of other districts. This has led to a situation that the complaints of consumers are piling up in the Consumer Forums as there is no hearing of their cases.

The chief justice while taking cognizance of the letter decided to treat it as a PIL and the matter came up for hearing on Wednesday.

The court while giving Najpande a week's time to appoint a lawyer to put up his case deferred hearing of the case to May 2. Advocate Dinesh Upadhyay will argue the case on behalf of Najpande, it was told.