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Mounting vacancies, crisp emergence successful pending cases and non-transparency successful presumption of lawsuit disposals person importantly weakened India’s user grievance redressal mechanism, finds Consumer Justice Report 2026 released successful Delhi connected Wednesday (March 18, 2026).
Released by the India Justice Report (IJR) with an purpose to assesscapacity of redressal commissions successful India, this archetypal of its benignant study chiefly relied connected information from nationalist platforms, websites of redressal commissions, Right to Information (RTI) replies, and Parliament responses collected betwixt 2020 and 2024. It finds that Indian consumers stay astir aggrieved astir insurance, lodging and banking.
Former Supreme Court justice Justice S.K. Kaul, who released the report, said the vacancy situation and backlog are eroding nationalist confidence. He cautioned that nonaccomplishment to operationalise legislative intent defeats the intent of law.
Sharing the findings of the report, Valay Singh, co-founder and lead, IJR, said that lawsuit pendency has risen steeply betwixt 2020 and 2024 by 21%, with the fig of cases expanding to much than 5.15 lakh from astir 88,000. This acold exceeds the timelines prescribed nether the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, which mandates disposal wrong 3 to 5 months.
States specified arsenic Kerala, Jharkhand, and Jammu and Kashmir person 70%–80% of cases pending beyond 3 years, the study finds.
“About fractional of the State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commissions (SCDRCs) and one-third of territory commissions were functioning without a president. Nearly 40% of sanctioned subordinate posts were vacant. In respective States, including Tamil Nadu, Arunachal Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh, SCDRCs had nary members astatine all,” the study read.
The study notes that much than one-third of cases person remained unresolved for implicit 3 years, Mr. Singh said, adding that astir State user commissions were reluctant to stock information done RTI portion the territory commissions performed amended connected this front.
Highlighting mediocre practice of women successful user courts, the study stated that the aforesaid has declined from 35% successful 2021 to 29% successful 2025, reaching a debased of 23.2% successful 2024, with lone Delhi and Sikkim having women presidents that year.
Reviewing the performances of State user commissions, the study finds that among larger States, Andhra Pradesh ranked highest successful lawsuit disposal, with lone 4.8% of cases pending beyond 3 years. In contrast, Telangana ranked last. Meghalaya topped the tiny States category. Maharashtra recorded the highest lawsuit filings but a debased clearance rate, with 65% of cases pending.
The study notes that 88.5% of 7.64 lakh cases filed betwixt 2020 and 2024 were disposed of, with Tamil Nadu achieving the highest clearance complaint of 114.6%.
The findings travel the caller involution by the Supreme Court of India successful February 2026, erstwhile it invoked Article 142 of the Constitution to let High Courts to perceive user appeals wherever the commissions are non-functional.
The study besides flagged the constricted usage of mediation and inadequate sex representation.
It calls for urgent reforms, including time-bound appointments, improved staffing, amended fund utilisation, and greater reliance connected alternate quality solution to code mounting pendency.
