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Rutu Mihir Panchal v. Union of India

Civil Appeal · 2025 INSC 593Decided 29 Apr 2025
W.P.(C) No. 282 of 2021 (with Civil Appeal arising out of SLP(C) No. 1738 of 2022)
Justice Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha · Justice Manoj Misra

Background

The petitioner's husband died when his car caught fire in 2018; her consumer complaint seeking Rs. 51.49 crore compensation had to be filed before the District Consumer Commission because, under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, the forum (district/state/national) is decided by the value of goods or services paid as consideration, not the compensation claimed: a change from the old 1986 Act. In a connected appeal, a widow whose Rs. 14.94 crore insurance claim was rejected by the National Commission for want of pecuniary jurisdiction (since the policy's consideration was under Rs. 10 crore) challenged the same provisions as arbitrary and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Sections 34, 47 and 58 of the 2019 Act, holding that Parliament has full legislative competence to fix pecuniary jurisdiction of courts and tribunals, and that using "consideration paid" (rather than "compensation claimed") as the yardstick is a valid, non-arbitrary classification because consideration is the essential, verifiable core of any consumer contract, whereas compensation claims can be inflated arbitrarily by the consumer. The Court found the classification has a rational nexus with the object of fairly distributing case load across district, state and national commissions and does not extinguish any consumer's substantive right to claim full compensation. It only decides which forum hears the case. The Court also directed the Central Consumer Protection Council and Central Consumer Protection Authority to actively use their statutory powers to review and improve the working of the consumer protection framework.

Lesson Learnt

Which consumer forum (district, state, or national commission) hears your complaint depends on the price you paid for the goods or service, not how much compensation you are claiming, so a genuine grievance is not weakened by filing at the "lower" forum matching your purchase value.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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