1. “Recommendations for effective implementation of the Consumer Rights Protection Act, 2009 in Bangladesh”, prepared by Consumers International- Kuala Lumpur Office in relation to consumer protection in Bangladesh, 2010.
2. Ahamuduzzaman et al, “Consumer Protection Law”, Books 4 U, July, 2009;
3. Ahamuduzzaman, Md. Lutfor Rahman and Nahida Nazmus Zannat, “A Contextual Analysis of the Consumer Rights Protection Law With Practical Approach: Bangladesh Perspectives”, ASA University Review, Vol. 3 No. 2, July–December, 2009
4. CUTS, “State of the Indian Consumer”, 2001
5. Mizanur Rahman, “Consumer Protection in Bangladesh: Law and Practice” (1994) 17(3) Journal of Consumer Policy 349.
6. Turin Afroz, “Consumer Rights Day: What do we want”, The daily Star, “Law & our Rights”,14-03-2004
7. United Nations, (1985/1999), “Guidelines for Consumer Protection”, April 9, 1985, (General Assembly Resolution No.: 39/248), revised in 1999
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Sources
The Indian act gives a redress mechanism which avoids the traditional legal system which consumers can use.
Bangladesh act has two kinds of redress mechanisms – criminal prosecution and civil suits. Both make use of the formal legal system. The inherent problems with that include lengthy trials, difficulty of access without lawyers, high costs and enormous backlogs already existing.
Most importantly, the traditional courts are not trained or aware of consumer rights and their applications. They are not a specialized centre of dispute resolution of this special kind.
The Act bestows a rather confusing “supervisory” role upon the Directorate. It mentions that the Directorate will “supervise” the list of anti-consumer rights practices but does not essentially spell out how. There is no power given to the Directorate to direct specific agencies of the state to carry out activities as necessary nor is it given sufficient institutional capacity to build a force for supervising the markets. How the institution will act with these constraints is yet to be seen.
The recommendations:
1. The CPRA needs to be amended to file the criminal case directly to the magistrate by the complaint consumer.
2. The CPRA needs to be amended to file the civil case directly to the civil court by the complaint consumer.
3. The CPRA needs to be amended to accommodate the members of the civil society in the district committee to identify critical areas of access to essential needs, particularly for consumers in rural and isolated areas, identify strategies to mitigate those risks and engage in public education and advocacy within the government to overcome critical areas of shortfall.
4. The CPRA needs to be amended to formulate a special court to establish the right of the consumers.
5. The CPRA needs to be amended to incorporate the appeal provision directly to the district judge instead of high court division.
6. The members of ‘National Consumer Rights Council’ should be a total number of 9-10.
7. The CPRA needs to be amended to increase
the sentence in the matter of weigh measurement regarding sentence.
8. The CPRA needs to be amended to prevent adulteration instantly by the mobile court.
9. The CPRA needs to be amended to hand over jurisdiction of the civil court to Joint District Judge’s Court instead of Assistant Judge’s court.
10. The CPRA should be reviewed and revised to incorporate the case systems through general register (G.R) to the police station and through compliant register (C.R) directly to the court.
11. The CPRA needs to be amended to change the bail system for CPRA offences into non-bail able and non-compoundable.
12. The principle of preventive remedy should be introduced in the CPRA to protect consumers’ rights if the director of consumer department fails to submit charge sheet within 90 days.
13. A systematic programme should be developed by the National Consumer Rights Protection Directorate to design and implement comprehensive consumer education programmes through both the formal educational sector as well as informally amongst rural and illiterate communities.