- Court
- Supreme Court of India
- Decided
- 5 August 1996
- Bench
- S. P. Bharucha, S. C. Sen
- Result
- Appeal allowed.
Headnote
Consumer Pmtection Act, 1986 :
Consumer Disputes Redressa/ Fontm-Jwisdiction-Adjudication of dispute by State Commission not falling within the pwview of the Fo11un-Ef-feet of-Held, if a cowt does not have j1m'sdiction, it is the obligation of the appellate Court so to hold and set aside the order under appeat-Having regard lo the fact that the question of p1icing did not "legitimately fall within the purview of adjudication by the Consumer Disputes Redressal Fo11uns'~ order under appeal is set aside and the claim made by the respondents before the State Commission is dismissed.
Headnote as published in the Digital Supreme Court Reports by the Supreme Court of India. Paragraph references point to the judgment below.
Judgment
Delay condoned.
Leave granted.
The order under appeal is passed by the national Consumer Disputes Redressal Commi'5ion in first appeal against an order of the State Com-mission.
The order under appeal opens with these words :
'Although there is substantial force in the contention advanced by
the learned Advocate General, Mr. Thakore, appearing on behalf of the appellant, that the question of pricing does not legitimately fall within the purview of adjudication by the Consumer Disputes Redressal Forums, regard being had to the· peculiar facts and circumstances of the case where only a very small period of about 10 months is involved and the party concerned is a Gram Panchayat, which is claiming benefit of subsidised rate of 25 paise per unit in respect of electricity consumed by it for the supply of drinking water to its residents from a bore-well, we are not inclined to interfere with the order passed by the State Commission uphold-ing the right of the panchayat to the benefit of the said subsidy." We find this very difficult to appreciate. If a court does not have jurisdiction, it does not have jurisdiction, regardless of the fact that one of the parties involved is a Gram Panchayat or the period involved is very short or the amount involved is very small. If a court does not have jurisdiction, it is the obligation of the appellate court so to hold and to set aside the order under appeal.
Having regard to the fact that the dispute did not "legitimately fall within the purview of adjudication by the Consumer Disputes Redressal Forums", the appeal is allowed, the order under appeal is set aside and the claim made by the respondents before the Slate Commission is dismissed.
There shall be no order as to costs.
Case details
Arising from
CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION : Civil Appeal No. 10191 of 1996.
From the Judgment and Order dated 25.8.93 of the National Con-sumer Dispute Redressal Commission, New Delhi in A. No. 160 of 1992.
Appearances
Yashank Adhyaru and Ms. H. Wahi for the Appellants.
M. Barot and Ms. H. Khatun for the Respondents.
Source: Supreme Court of India, Digital Supreme Court Reports, via the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open dataset (CC BY 4.0). Text was extracted from the official PDF and may contain conversion errors. Check the official PDF before relying on it.