Insurance Ombudsman is now conducting Virtual hearings in the matters before it. Good step indeed.
How Consumer Court hearings are heard ? Virtually or in the courts? Any updates. TIA
After the pandemic, that is in 2022, the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission specified that from 21st February, 2022, all its benches will conduct only physical hearings and no alternate forns of hearings such as virtual or hybrid hearings would take place from the said date.
However, after an year, that is on February 10, 2023, it was allowed by the NCDRC to hear the cases listed before the registrar in both physical and virtual mode. But it is to be noted that the virtual hearing in NCDRC is only done in the registrar court and in no other court. And in this way, NCDRC has also became the latest body to start for the virtual hearing of the cases.
However, the district and state level consumer panels allows for the virtual hearing of the cases, it has been urged by the consumer affairs ministry that the national panel should also allow for the same as it receives cases from all over the country and sometimes it becomes difficult for a person to appear physically before the bench. Moreover the ministry stated that its object is to deliver justice to the consumers and the virtial hearings could save the unnecessary travel time of the consumers as well as the expenditure of the government in creating circuit benches.
