The Consumer Protection Act, 1986, aims to promote and protect the rights and interests of consumers. Municipal services are currently not covered under this law.
The local civic bodies being the public, statutory and civic authorities perform statutory and obligatory functions and therefore such functions do not form part of service as defined by Section 2(1)(o) of Consumer Protection Act 1986 and violation of fundamental and personal rights of the citizens is not remediable under the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act 1986.
The complainants do not fulfill the requirement of being consumers as defined by Section 2(1)(d) of the Act, as they have neither hired nor availed any kind of service provided by any of the OPs-authorities against consideration.
There is vast difference between tax and fees. In regard to fees there should be quid pro quo. Tax is revenue and no quid pro quo is necessary for it. For house tax or road tax or any other kind of tax there need not be a quid pro quo commensurate with the tax amount. A tax is not a fee paid for any service rendered by the civil authorities or any statutory or public authority. There can be a tax without an obligation to render a particular service.
Deficiency means any fault, imperfection, shortcoming or inadequacy in the quality, nature and manner of performance which is required to be maintained by or under any law for the time being in force or has been undertake to be performed by a person in pursuance of a contract or otherwise in relation to any service.
The Thane district consumer redressal forum recently turned down a Bhiwandi citizen's plea of deficiency in service against the Bhiwandi-Nizampur Municipal Corporation after the former demanded reimbursement towards medical treatment after travelling on bad roads. The forum said that the civic body was not a service provider in the real sense of the term.
