Can we Really Devise Dispute Resolution Mechanisms Different from the Regular Procedures of Civil Trial Envisaged in the CPC? A Study of the Consumer Protection statutes

This faculty seminar is being held on May 11, 2022 at 4.30 PM.

Speaker

Dr. Nanda Kishore, Visiting Faculty, NLSIU

Abstract

The Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, is often commended as a piece of legislation that is the embodiment of everything that is good and great. The Code is said to enshrine a rigorous system of procedural techniques that ensure fair play, the right to be heard, transparency, the search for the Truth, the balancing of economic interests, adversarial due process and other goals that the civil justice system supposedly serves. However, given the huge backlog of cases and the inexcusable delays of the civil justice system over the decades, law-makers and judges have frequently explored other ways of resolving civil disputes – ways that might be shorter, simpler, faster and more effective. In this paper I try to study how successful these alternative methods have been- by looking in particular at one area of law: the evolution of the legal regime relating to consumer disputes in India. I argue that in spite of the rhetoric about alternative procedural techniques, a great deal of work is yet to be done if we are to really move away from the detailed procedures contained in the good old CPC, 1908.