Consumer Rights

When a woman undergoes a sterilization procedure, it is with the expectation that any more sexual relationship will not result in more babies, and in today’s world where family planning is required, going in for a sterilization procedure is an act of great responsibility. When the family feels that they have had enough children, then sterilization is way of stopping any further children from coming. To make it easier for poorer families to adopt such a procedure, the various Governments provide camps where sterilization is carried out under the supervision for doctors. When a family adopts such a procedure, they do with the thought that such a camp being sponsored by the Government means a measure of reliability. So what happens when a lady finds out that she has got pregnant even after such a procedure being carried out, who bears the responsibility ? In a recent judgment, the Delhi Court has held that the State Government is responsible for the expenses for rearing the baby, especially when the household is very poor and cannot bear the expenses for rearing the baby. The expenses are to be charged from the Government, but not recovered from the doctors who carried out the operation (link to article):

A Delhi court has held the government responsible for the birth of an unwanted child in a poor household because the mother became pregnant despite undergoing sterilisation under a government-sponsored scheme at a hospital. Asking the government to bear the expenses of rearing the boy, additional district judge Kamini Lau awarded the 40-year-old mother, Nirmala, a compensation of Rs 1 lakh on Tuesday.
While awarding the compensation, ADJ Lau said “The serious problem of population explosion warrants and demands that adequate measures be taken by the government while adopting and implementing the family planning scheme successfully.”

March 1st, 2010 | Tags: Baby, Compensation, Complaint, Failure, Government, Lady, Mother, Sterilization, Woman | Category: Compensation, Complaint, Court, Doctor, Government, Grievance | Leave a comment

If you want to invest money, and talk to any skilled financial planner or read the numerous articles on this area, all of them talk about having an asset allocation in place. What this means is that when you do your investment, you should consider that you have considered all the different investment possibilities – property, stock market, debt funds, safe stocks, fixed deposits, gold / jewelery etc. At the same time, you should also consider the difference that your own age can have on the matrix. For example, when you are younger, you can afford to take risks in terms of a higher focus on equity, but as you increase in years, you should also consider that safety of your money becomes much more important, and hence you may away from equity.
Consider the following article that explains the age factor in terms of investments (link to article):

If you are below 30, with minimal family responsibilities, equities are for you. Life insurance may not be a top priority but health insurance is a must, even if you are covered under corporate mediclaim. You would do well to direct a major part of your savings (roughly 40 per cent of your income) into equity.

Investor profile: 30-45-years old. Couples with kids
Equity Allocation: 35-50%
Must have: Term insurance, goal-oriented savings

Investor profile: 45-55, inching closer to retirement
Equity allocation: 25-35%%
Must have: Health and critical illness cover

January 8th, 2010 | Tags: Age, Finance, Health, Investment, Mediclaim, Personal Finance | Category: Finance, Investing | Leave a comment

SEBI (the Securities and Exchange Board of India) has the mandate to protect investors, especially the retail and small investors who can get defrauded on various stock market deviancies, fraud, and management frauds. And SEBI has taken a number of actions in the past to act against people who have sought to defraud investors, such as banning people from the market, or preventing access to the market for such white collar criminals.
However, there have been a number of cases where investors, especially the smaller investors have got defrauded in the past, and when calls have been made for SEBI to either act on behalf of getting compensation to these hapless investors or being more proactive, the actions of SEBI leave some room for improvement. Some of these cases are related to vanishing companies, or to frauds, or to price manipulation (link to article):

Undoubtedly, SEBI has done a lot to protect the interest of investors. There are, however, some areas where action needs to be initiated to ensure that investors, particularly small gullible ones, are protected from unscrupulous promoters, conniving auditors and mercenary manipulators.
The limited punitive actions taken by the department of corporate affairs and SEBI against the companies and their directors do not answer the basic question of compensating the investors who for no rhyme or reason are the losers. The argument that investment in equities is a matter of risk and reward cannot be extended to the frauds committed by these companies. Small investors, at least up to Rs 25,000, need to be compensated.

November 23rd, 2009 | Tags: Fraud, Investor, Price Manipulation, Protection, SEBI, Securities and Exchange Board of India, Small Investor, Vanishing Companies | Category: Cheating, Companies, Complaint, Consumer, Equity, Fraud, Grievance, Investing, Punishment, SEBI | Leave a comment

The second hand car market in India is increasing, to the extent that the business of re-sale and purchase of second hand cars now has a greater volume than that of first car purchase (direct purchase of vehicles from the dealers). However, a lot of people who decide to buy or sell their vehicles do not follow proper procedures, and can land in a lot of trouble while doing so. While indulging in second hand transactions, it is absolutely essential that purchasers or sellers ensure that they are going through reliable people, and that the transactions also mean a settlement of all the documentation required (RC, Insurance, any outstanding traffic fines, pollution control certificates), etc.
Here is a case whereby a person gets into trouble by not following through on the documentation needed in the case of a second hand transfer of a vehicle. He gets cheated when the car dealers actually do not transfer the car to him, but instead transfer the car to a third person. It helps that there is a consumer forum which can help in ensuring that the car dealers follow through on the required steps (link to article):

Holding two car dealers guilty of unfair trade practice, the district consumer forum has directed them to pay a compensation of Rs 25,000 along with litigation cost of Rs 5,000 to sector-38 resident Manjit Singh. The forum headed by Jagroop Singh Mahal directed Prithi Pal Singh and Sukhwinder Singh, dealers of second-hand vehicles in Car Bazaar, to return Rs 1,20,000 with interest to Manjit for not providing him necessary documents of a car purchased from them.
Despite repeated requests, nothing was done in this regard which forced Manjit to report the matter to the police. Later, the complainant approached the Registering and Licensing Authority, Haryana, and was shocked to learn that the vehicle was under the process of transfer in the name of one Mahesh Kumar of sector 40-D, Chandigarh. Following this, Manjit filed a complaint before the forum alleging cheating, fraud, deficiency in service and unfair trade practice.

November 21st, 2009 | Tags: Compensation, Consumer, Consumer Forum, Deficiency of Service, Document Transfer, Documentation, Documents, Fine, India, Penalty, Purchase, RC, Registration Certificate, RTO, Sale, Second Hand Car, Second Hand Vehicle | Category: Cheating, Compensation, Complaint, Consumer, Consumer Court, Fraud, Grievance | Leave a comment