Legislative Update: Consumer Protection Bill, 2015 - Keeping Pace With Changing Times

The continued logjam on the effective working of the Parliament and the conflicting self-interest of political parties (at the cost of the nation) ensures that the legislature is unable to perform its key function of legislating new enactments to meet the needs of the changing times. One such important legislation awaiting enactment is the new Consumer Protection Bill, 2015 ("Bill") in place of the extant The Consumer Protection Act, 1986 ("Consumer Protection Act"), which was introduced on the floors of the Lok Sabha in 2015 by the Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Mr. Ram Vilas Paswan.

The three decades old Consumer Protection Act (in its present form) is an inefficient piece of legislation not keeping pace with the new market dynamics, multi-layered delivery chains, innovative (and many times misleading) advertising and marketing machinery. It was in this backdrop that the new Bill has been introduced to equip the consumers to protect