Dharwad Consumer Grievances Redressal Commission disposes off cases with 90% indictment

Dharwad: With a strike rate of over 90% indictment, the Dharwad district Consumer Grievances Redressal Commission is slowly but effectively delivering justice to the aggrieved parties. May it be lapses in services, delay in payments, rejecting claims or distribution of spurious seeds leading to crop damage, the Commission headed by retired judge Eshappa Bhute has been passing some landmark judgements and protecting interests of aggrieved consumers.

While commissions in other North Karnataka districts are slow in processing and disposing off cases, due to various reasons including shortage of experienced members, the district consumer commission in Dharwad has been working speedily, thanks to the 33 years of legal experience of its chairman, retired judge Eshappa Bhute.

Interestingly, most companies which have been indicted by the district commission have failed to win in the appellate courts also as the latter have upheld the judgement of district commission. The statistics prove that the commission has been disposing off over 200 cases every year, for the last four years.

Judge Bhute told TOI that in 2021, 166 cases were filed, which increased to 245 in 2022, and 501 in 2023. Last year, the commission received 537 cases. In the last four months, 103 cases have already have been filed. In nearly 99% of the cases, consumers have been given relief, he added.

Disposal

The commission disposed off 212 cases in 2022, 409 in 2023, 186 in 2024 and 32 in 2025. Based on its performance, the Union food, civil supplies and consumer affairs ministry has recently awarded Dharwad commission with the ‘Best Commission'.

Bhute said the Consumer Protection Act has been simplified since 2019, and aggrieved party can file their cases in any of the commissions, wherein the opposite party's regional office, or head office is located.

Nearly 500 arecanut farmers from Sirsi had suffered loss due to supply of spurious seeds by a private company. They had filed the case at Dharwad Commission as the seed company's regional office was in Hubballi. After studying the merit of the case, the commission ordered the seed company to compensate farmers for the loss.

In majority of the cases, it is observed that private insurance companies have been dodging people, thereby denying them claim settlement. Nearly 65% of the complaints are related to insurance settlement. The next biggest issue is realtor who assure of developing sites or constructing homes, but fail to deliver on time.

Bhute has called upon people, to gain knowledge on consumer act which will empower them to take on companies that are into unfair trade, he added.