D.K. Pandita

Historically, consumer welfare dates back to the Vedic Age. Four broad types of criminal offences were prominent in the ancient period: adulteration of foodstuff, charging of excess prices, fabrication of weights and measures, and sale of forbidden articles. For these offences, statutory measures were recommended from time to time by the leading texts of the time. Manusmriti advocated severe punishment for unfair business practices. To deal with faulty weights and measures, the Manusmriti provided that the king must duly mark all weights and measures and the process should be re-examined every six months. Manusmriti explains that it was obligatory for the king to fix the rates for the purchase and sale of all marketable goods and the fixation of price by the king was to be made public.
In Kautilya’s Arthashastra consumer protection occupies a prominent place. It describes the role of the State in regulating trade and its duty to prevent crimes against consumers. To protect the customer from the excessive prices charged by the traders, it was provided that the state declares the rates for the purchase and sale of all marketable commodities to protect the customers from arbitrary exploitation by the traders. Adulteration was recognized as an offence in Arthashastra and punishment for same was specified.

Protecting Consumer Rights

Adulteration of grains, oil, medicine, perfumes, salt, and sugar attracted severe penalties. Traders who during the purchase and sale raised the price or secured an extra profit of five percent beyond the limit fixed by the state were heavily fined. If the merchants conspired to raise the prices of the commodities at their own will they were severely dealt with. Arthashastra expresses two other key areas concerning consumers- regulation concerning the sale of animal flesh; and the obligation of professionals like artisans, craftsmen, washermen, weavers, goldsmiths, actors, and physicians.
In the modern era, the British regime was only concerned with protecting and promoting British interests rather than the welfare of Indians. However, the Britishers introduced several Acts like the Indian Contract Act, of 1872, the Sales of Goods Act, of 1930, etc. to protect consumers. However, these legal measures mainly led to litigation with little relief to consumers. Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the Nation, attached great importance to what he described as the poor consumer, who according to him, should be the principal beneficiary of the consumer movement. Mahatma Gandhi said, “A customer is the most important visitor in our premises. He is not dependent on us, we are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work, he is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business, he is part of it.”
In independent India, the consumer movement as a ‘social force’ originated with the necessity of protecting and promoting the interests of consumers against unethical and unfair trade practices. Rampant food shortages, hoarding, black marketing, and adulteration of food and edible oil gave birth to the consumer movement in an organized form in the 1960s. Till the 1970s, consumer organizations were largely engaged in writing articles and holding exhibitions. They formed consumer groups to look into the malpractices in ration shops and overcrowding in road passenger transport. More recently, India witnessed an upsurge in the number of consumer groups. Because of all these efforts, the movement succeeded in bringing pressure on business firms as well as the government to correct business conduct which may be unfair and against the interests of consumers at large.
The Constitution of India includes different provisions in the Directive Principles of State Policy, which lay emphasis on the expansion of public enterprise, avoiding concentration of economic power in few hands and restriction of private monopolies, safeguarding the interests of the consumers of manufactured goods and producers of raw materials, etc. to further the concept of a welfare state. Thus, consumer justice is a part of social and economic justice enshrined in the Constitution. Following the Constitutional mandate, a number of laws have been enacted to protect consumers. Some important ones are Drugs Control Act, 1950; Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954; Essential Commodities Act, 1955; Standard of Weights and Measures Act, 1976; Prevention of Black-marketing and Maintenance of Supplies of Essential Commodities Act, 1980. These Acts were enacted with the objective to provide better protection of the interests of the consumers. It applies to all goods and services and covers all sectors-private, public, and cooperatives.
A major step taken in 1986 by the Indian government was the enactment of the Consumer Protection Act 1986, popularly known as COPRA. December 24th, the day when the President in 1986 gave his assent to the act, is now commemorated as National Consumer Rights Day. The Government has also launched Grahak Suvidha Kendra (2015) as a one-stop center catering to a spectrum of services for consumer welfare in six locations in the Country. It will function as an extended arm of State Consumer Helplines on a Common IT platform of National and State Consumer Helplines. It will provide service in local language, English and Hindi.
In the era of globalization and AI, consumers play a vital role in the economic system of any nation. Consumers are the key players in the market place and their consumption patterns greatly influence the society and the economy. In the modern philosophy of marketing, the consumer is supposed to be the ‘king’, and business is expected to provide the maximum possible satisfaction to consumers. Coupled, with the revolution in information technology consumers are facing new challenges, such as cybercrime, plastic money, unsustainable consumption, global warming, etc., which affects them in a number of ways. The consumer who is referred to as ‘king’ has come to become a ‘victim’ of market malpractices.

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