Consumer rights protection

FOLLOWING the approval of the final draft of the consumer rights protection ordinance by the council of advisers, some of its features have drawn criticism from experts and activists in the field. This awaits assent of the president to be promulgated into an ordinance through a gazette notification. Since the enactment process is yet to be completed, we believe, there is still scope for mitigating some of the inadequacies contained in the draft before it is promulgated and put into effect.
The chief drawback of the measure lies in the fact that an aggrieved consumer does not automatically have the right to go to court or take recourse to legal remedy. It is only at the satisfaction of a government functionary, in this case, the director general of the consumer rights protection directorate that a buyer's or service receiver's complaint will be taken cognizance of. Whereupon his case will be tried by a first class magistrate or a in a metropolitan magistrate's court. This may be construed as bureaucratisation of the process in the sense that a bureaucrat will decide the fate of a consumer grievance from the very word 'go'.
Understandably, there has to be a time-limit for lodging complaint with the directorate. That's why a 30-day period has been stipulated for filing a complaint since being aggrieved. Since the directorate will be headquartered in Dhaka, gaining access to it from the outlying areas will be difficult. Hence, the need for opening outlying offices of the directorate in the district and upazila levels before the 30-day time limit can be applied.
The ordinance further stipulates that unless chargesheet is submitted within 90 days of filing a complaint, the magistrate will not entertain the case for trial. This devolves the responsibility, according to the ordinance, on the director general's office to complete the investigation and frame charges against the offender in quick time for the trial to be held at all. It is but logical to think that time limit should have been also stipulated for adjudication of the case.
Ideally, it would be better if we have consumer rights courts, given the magnitude of violation of consumer rights in our predominantly sellers' market, in the likeness of, say, Artha Rin Adalats dealing with loan default cases. We could also think of not just associating magistrates but also community representatives with the adjudication process.