Kohima, July 4 (MExN): The Nagaland State Legal Services Authority (NSLSA) hosted a webinar on ‘Contours & Analysis of Consumer Protection Laws’ on July 3 with Sukumar Pattjoshi, Senior advocate, New Delhi as panel speaker.
Referring to President Kennedy’s Consumer Bill of Rights speech, Sukumar opined that consumer protection is an element that affects us all.
He also highlighted the need to analyze consumer protection in modern day, and gave three parameters of consumer protection disparities found in the consumer-supplier relationship including bargaining power, knowledge and resources.
He opined that there should be equal strength of demand and supply wherein state intervention is premised to provide consumer protection on a number of grounds.
Towards this, the senior advocate pointed out important objectives of consumer protection where economic efficiency on the supply side plays an important feature in providing consumers with full information on their products and observing laws in the regard to safety and equality.
Another equally pertinent attention he raised was on the demand side where consumers should be well informed of the products or service before making a purchase so that they can also actively pursue their rights when need arises.
“State intervention is necessary to ensure that suppliers behave responsibly and that aggrieved consumers have access to remedies,” the speaker noted. He later dwelled on individual rights and distributive rights.
Among Government agencies, ombudsmen and consumer associations which are responsible functionaries of consumer protection, he mentioned that consumer associations need to be organized in more quarters observing that a well-organized and widely representative group of individual consumers can become a strong force.
The webinar was hosted by Member Secretary Nagaland State Legal Services Authority N Longshithung Ezung and was attended by Nagaland judicial officers, retainer lawyers and panel lawyers and Project coordinators and District Project Assistants.
.JPG)
