What are the powers of the consumer redressal forums?
The forums have a variety of powers
- The summoning and enforcing of the attendance of any defendant or witness and examining the witness under oath
- The discovery and production of any document or other material object producible as evidence
- The reception of evidence on affidavits
- The summoning of any expert evidence or testimony
- The requisitioning of the report of the concerned analysis or test from the appropriate laboratory or from any other relevant source
- Issuing of any commission for the examination of any witnes
- Any other matter which may be prescribed
How does adjudication of liability take place?
The process before the competent forum will be set in motion in the following manner. When the Complainant files a written complaint, the forum, after admitting the complaint, sends a written notice to the opposite party asking for a written version to be submitted within 30 days. Thereafter, subsequent to proper scrutiny, the forum would ask for either filing of an affidavit or production of evidence in the form of interrogatories, expert evidence, medical literature, and judicial decisions.