The Consumer Protection Act, 1986

(1) This Act may be called the ConsumerProtection Act, 1986. (2) It extends to the whole of India 1***. (3) It shall come into force on such date2as the Central Government may, by notification, appoint anddifferent dates may be appointed for different States and for different provisions of this Act. (4) Save as otherwise expressly provided by the Central Government by notification, this Act shallapply to all goods and services.

(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,-- 1[(a) "appropriate laboratory" means a laboratory or organisation-- (i) recognised by the Central Government; (ii) recognised by a State Government, subject to such guidelines as may be prescribed by theCentral Government in this behalf; or (iii) any such laboratory or organisation established by or under any law for the time being inforce, which is maintained, financed or aided by the Central Government or a State Governmentfor carrying out analysis or test of any goods with a view to determining whether such goodssuffer from any defect;] 2[(aa) "branch office" means-- (i) any establishment described as a branch by the opposite party; or (ii) any establishment carring on either the same or substantially the same activity as thatcarried on by the head office of the establishment;] (b) "complainant" means-- (i) a consumer; or (ii) any voluntary consumer association registered under the Companies Act, 1956(1 of 1956) or under any other law for the time being in force; or] (iii) the Central Government or any State Government, who or which makes a complaint; 3[(iv) one or more consumers, where there are numerous consumers having the same interest;] 4[(v) in case of dealth of a consumer, his legal heir or representative;] (c) "complaint" means any allegation in writing made by a complainant that-- 5[(i) an unfair trade practice or a restrictive trade practice has been adopted by 6[any trader orservice provider];] (ii) 7[the goods bought by him or agreed to be bought by him] suffer from one or moredefects; (iii) 8[the services hired or availed of or agreed to be hired or availed of by him] suffer fromdeficiency in any respect; 9[(iv) a trader or the service provider, as the case may be, has charged for the goods or for theservices mentioned in the complaint, a price in excess of the price-- (a) fixed by or under any law for the time being in force; (b) displayed on the goods or any package containing such goods; (c) displayed on the price list exhibited by him by or under any law for the time being inforce; (d) agreed between the parties; (v) goods which will be hazardous to life and safety when used are being offered for sale tothe public,-- (a) in contravention of any standards relating to safety of such goods as required to becomplied with, by or under any law for the time being in force; (b) if the trader could have known with due diligence that the goods so offered are unsafeto the public; (vi) services which are hazardous or likely to be hazardous to life and safety of the publicwhen used, are being offered by the service provider which such person could have known withdue diligence to be injurious to life and safety;] with a view to obtaining any relief provided by or under this Act; (d) "consumer" means any person who,-- (i) buys any goods for a consideration which has been paid or promised or partly paid andpartly promised, or under any system of deferred payment and includes any user of such goodsother than the person who buys such goods for consideration paid or promised or partly paid orpartly promised, or under any system of deferred payment when such use is made with theapproval of such person, but does not include a person who obtains such goods for resale or forany commercial purpose; or (ii) 10[hires or avails of] any services for a consideration which has been paid or promised orpartly paid and partly promised, or under any system of deferred payment and includes anybeneficiary of such services other than the person who 10[hires or avails of] the services forconsideration paid or promised, or partly paid and partly promised, or under any system ofdeferred payment, when such services are availed of with the approval of the first mentionedperson 4[but does not include a person who avails of such services for any commercial purpose] 11[Explanation.-- For the purposes of this clause, "commecial purpose" does not include useby a person of goods bought and used by him and services availed by him exclusively for thepurposes of earning his livelihood by means of self-employment; (e) "consumer dispute" means a dispute where the person against whom a complaint has beenmade, denies or disputes the allegations contained in the complaint; (f) "defect" means any fault imperfection or shortcoming in the quality, quantity, potency, purityor standard which is required to be maintained by or under any law for the time being in force or12[under any contract, express or] implied, or as is claimed by the trader in any manner whatsoever inrelation to any goods; (g) "deficiency" means any fault imperfection, shortcoming or inadequacy in the quality, natureand manner of performance which is required to be maintained by or under any law for the time beingin force or has been undertaken to be performed by a person in pursuance of a contract or otherwise inrelation to any service; (h) "District Forum" means a Consumer Dispute Redressal Forum estalished under clause (a) ofsection 9; (i) "goods" means goods as defined in the Sale of Goods Act, 1930 (3 of 1930); 13[(j) "manufacturer" means a person who-- (i) makes or manufactures any goods or parts thereof; or (ii) does not make or manufacture any goods but assembles parts thereof made ormanufactured by others; or (iii) puts or causes to be put his own mark on any goods made or manufactured by any othermanufacturer;] Explanation. -- Where a manufacturer despatches any goods or part thereof to any branch officemaintained by him, such branch office shall not be deemed to be the manufacturer even though theparts so despatched to it are assembled at such branch office and are sold or distributed from suchbranch office; 12[(jj) "member" includes the President and a member of the National Commission or a StateCommission or a District Forum, as the case may be; (k) "National Commission" means the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commissionestablished under clause (c) of section 9; (l) "notification" means a notification published in the Official Gazette; (m) "person" includes,-- (i) a firm whether registered or not; (ii) a Hindu undivided family; (iii) a co-operative society; (iv) every other association of persons whether registered under the Societies RegistrationAct, 1860 (21 of 1860) or not; (n) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made by the State Government, or as the case may be,by the Central Government under this Act; 14[(nn) "regulation" means the regulations made by the National Commission under this Act; (nnn) "restrictive trade practice" means a trade practice which tends to bring about manipulationof price or its conditions of delivery or to affect flow of supplies in the market relating to goods orservices in such a manner as to impose on the consumers unjustified costs or restrictions and shallinclude-- (a) delay beyond the period agreed to by a trader in supply of such goods or in providing theservices which has led or is likely to lead to rise in the price; (b) any trade practice which requires a consumer to buy, hire or avail of any goods or, as thecase may be, services as condition precedent to buying, hiring or availing of other goods orservices;] (o) "service" means service of any description which is made available to potential 15[users andincludes, but not limited to, the provision of] facilities in connection with banking, financing,insurance, transport, processing, supply of electrical or other energy, board or lodging or both,16[housing construction], entertainment, amusement or the purveying of news or other information, butdoes not include the rendering of any service free of charge or under a contract of personal service; 17[(oo) "spurious goods and services" mean such goods and services which are claimed to begenuine but they are actually not so;] (p) "State Commission" means a Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission established in aState under clause (b) of section 9; (q) "trader" in relation to any goods means a person who sells or distributes any goods for saleand includes the manufacturer thereof, and where such goods are sold or distributed in package form,includes the packer thereof; 18[(r) "unfair trade practice" means a trade practice which, for the purpose of promoting the sale,use or supply of any goods or for the provision of any service, adopts any unfair method or unfair ordeceptive practice including any of the following practices, namely: (1) the practice of making any statement, whether orally or in writing or by visiblerepresentation which,-- (i) falsely represents that the goods are of a particular standard, quality, quantity, grade,composition, style or model; (ii) falsely represents that the services are of a particular standard, quality or grade; (iii) falsely represents any re-built, second-hand, renovated, reconditioned or old goods asnew goods; (iv) represents that the goods or services have sponsorship, approval, performance,characteristics, accessories, uses or benefits which such goods or services do not have; (v) represents that the seller or the supplier has a sponsorship or approval or affiliationwhich such seller or supplier does not have; (vi) makes a false or misleading representation concerning the need for, or the usefulnessof, any goods or services; (vii) gives to the public any warranty or guarantee of the performance, efficacy or lengthof life of a product or of any goods that is not based on an adequate or proper test thereof: Provided that where a defence is raised to the effect that such warranty or guarantee isbased on adequate or proper test, the burden of proof of such defence shall lie on the personraising such defence; (viii) makes to the public a representation in a form that purports to be-- (i) a warranty or guarantee of a product or of any goods or services; or (ii) a promise to replace, maintain or repair an article or any part thereof or to repeator continue a service until it has achieved a specified result, if such purported warranty or guarantee or promise is materially misleading or if there is noreasonable prospect that such warranty, guarantee or promise will be carried out; (ix) materially misleads the public concerning the price at which a product or likeproducts or goods or services, have been or are, ordinarily sold or provided, and, for thispurpose, a representation as to price shall be deemed to refer to the price at which the productor goods or services has or have been sold by sellers or provided by suppliers generally in therelevant market unless it is clearly specified to be the price at which the product has been soldor services have been provided by the person by whom or on whose behalf the representationis made; (x) gives false or misleading facts disparaging the goods, services or trade of anotherperson. Explanation.-- For the purposes of clause (1), a statement that is-- (a) expressed on an article offered or displayed for sale, or on its wrapper orcontainer; or (b) expressed on anything attached to, inserted in, or accompanying, an articleoffered or displayed for sale, or on anything on which the article is mounted for displayor sale; or (c) contained in or on anything that is sold, sent, delivered, transmitted or in anyother manner whatsoever made available to a member of the public, shall be deemed to be a statement made to the public by, and only by, the person who hadcaused the statement to be so expressed, made or contained; (2) permits the publication of any advertisement whether in any newspaper or otherwise, forthe sale or supply at a bargain price, of goods or services that are not intended to be offered forsale or supply at the bargain price, or for a period that is, and in quantities that are, reasonable,having regard to the nature of the market in which the business is carried on, the nature and sizeof business, and the nature of the advertisement. Explanation.-- For the purpose of clause (2), "bargaining price" means-- (a) a price that is stated in any advertisement to be a bargain price, by reference to anordinary price or otherwise, or (b) a price that a person who reads, hears or sees the advertisement, would reasonablyunderstand to be a bargain price having regard to the prices at which the product advertised orlike products are ordinarily sold; (3) permits-- (a) the offering of gifts, prizes or other items with the intention of not providing them asoffered or creating impression that something is being given or offered free of charge when itis fully or partly covered by the amount charged in the transaction as a whole; (b) the conduct of any contest, lottery, game of chance or skill, for the purpose ofpromoting, directly or indirectly, the sale, use or supply of any product or any businessinterest; 19[(3A) withholding from the participants of any scheme offering gifts, prizes or other itemsfree of charge, on its closure the information about final results of the scheme. Explanation.-- For the purposes of this sub-clause, the participants of a scheme shall bedeemed to have been informed of the final results of the scheme where such results are within areasonable time published, prominently in the same newspapers in which the scheme wasoriginally advertised;] (4) permits the sale or supply of goods intended to be used, or are of a kind likely to be used,by consumers, knowing or having reason to believe that the goods do not comply with thestandards prescribed by competent authority relating to performance, composition contents,design, constructions, finishing or packaging as are necessary to prevent or reduce the risk ofinjury to the person using the goods; (5) permits the hoarding or destruction of goods, or refuses to sell the goods or to make themavailable for sale or to provide any service, if such hoarding or destruction or refusal raises ortends to raise or is intended to raise, the cost of those or other similar goods or services;] 19[(6) manufacture of spurious goods or offering such goods for sale or adopting deceptivepractices in the provision of services.] (2) Any reference in this Act to any other Act or provision thereof which is not in force in any area towhich this Act applies shall be construed to have a reference to the corresponding Act or provisionthereof in force in such area.

The provisions of this Act shall be in addition to andnot in derogation of the provisions of any other law for the time being in force.

(1) 1[The Central Government shall], bynotification, establish with effect from such date as it may specify in such notification, a Council to beknown as the Central Consumer Protection Council (hereinafter referred to as the Central Council). (2) The Central Council shall consist of the following members, namely:-- (a) the Minister in charge of 2[consumer affairs] in the Central Government, who shall be itsChairman, and (b) such number of other official or non-official members representing such interests as may beprescribed.

(1) The Central Council shall meet as andwhen necessary, but 1[at least one meeting] of the Council shall be held every year. (2) The Central Council shall meet at such time and place as the Chairman may think fit and shallobserve such procedure in regard to the transaction of its business as may be prescribed.