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Date of judgment | 4 March 2020 |
Court | Supreme court of India |
Appellant | NEW INDIA ASSURANCE CO. LTD. |
Respondent | HILLI MULTIPURPOSE COLD STORAGE PVT. LTD |
Bench | Arun Mishra, Indira Banerjee, Vineet Saran, MR Shah and S. Ravindra Bhat |
Case Type | Consumer Protection Act, 1986 |
Facts
In New India Assurance Co. Ltd. VS Hilli Multipurpose Cold storage Private Ltd. Case related to the grant of time for filing response to a complaint under the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986.
In this case the first question that arises did section 13(2), of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 that provides for the respondent or opposite party for filing his response to the complaint within 30 days or such extended period, not exceeding 15 days, or did District Forum has the power to extend the time for filing the response beyond the period of 15 days, in addition to 30 days.
As per the provisions of Section 13 of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 the opposite party against whom case has been filed they have to respond to the complaint within a period of 30 days from the date of receipt of the copy of the complaint.
As per the provision of Consumer Protection Act, the opposite party has to give his response against the complaint within a period of thirty days or such extended period which not exceeding fifteen days as may be granted by the District Forum.
Issue
∙ Whether the District Forum has power to extend the time for filing the response beyond the period of 15days, in addition to 30 days.
∙ What would be the commencing point of 30 days stipulated under the aforesaid section?
Judgment
The 5-judge bench of Arun Mishra, Indira Banerjee, Vineet Saran, MR Shah and S. Ravindra Bhat, held that the District Forum has no power to extend the time of filing the response to the complaint beyond the period of 15 days in addition to 30 days as per Section 13 of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986.
It was held that induct of the 30 days under Section 13 of the Consumer Protection Act will be from the date of receipt of the notice included with the complaint by the opposite party, and that is not only the receipt of the notice of the complaint.
The induct point will be from the date of receipt of notice which is received by a copy of the complaint, and not only the receipt of the notice, as the response has to be given, within the certain time, to the facts made in the complaint and unless a copy of the complaint is served on the opposite party, he would not be in a position to furnish its reply. Thus, only service of notice, without service of the copy of the complaint, would not complete and cannot be the induct point of 30 days under the predicated Section of the Act.
The court held that the decision was rendered by a 3-judge bench in Dr. J. J. Merchant v. Shrinath Chaturvedi, to be correct in law, it is held that the time limit for filling the response against the complaint under the provision of section 13 of the Consumer Protection Act is to be strictly adhered to, that is the same is mandatory, and not directory.
References
https://indiankanoon.org/doc/96395504/
https://www.scconline.com/blog/post/2020/03/07/district-forum-cant-extend-limitation period-of-45-days-for-filing-response-under-section-13-of-consumer-protection-act/
This Article is written by Suchita Suman of Lloyd Law College, Intern at Legal Vidhiya.
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