Condonation of Delay – Consumer Protection Act

The Consumer Protection Act stipulates a period of one month for filing appeals and revisions.
There are several cases, where the State Consumer Commissions and the National Consumer Commission have condoned long delays.

In one of the latest cases, the National Consumer Commission has refused to condone long delays in a bunch of cases.
It has referred to the Supreme Court decision in  “Sanjay Sidgonda Patl Vs. National Insurance Co. Ltd. & Ors.”, Special Leave to Appeal (Civil) No. 37183 of 2013, decided on 17.12.2013,  in which the Supreme Court has held that even the 13 days’ unexplained delay is not to be condoned  and dismissed the Appeal.

I am giving details of the National Consumer Commission’s decision.

The State Commission condoned a delay of 43 days in one of my appeals, and that too without imposing any costs, but this can only be treated as an exception.

I would like to stress that Appeals and Revisions have to be filed in time to avoid unnecessary complications.