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You have human Rights by the virtue of being a human. You have Fundamental Rights by the virtue of being a citizen. And you know what , you have the Right To Be Heard by the virtue of being a consumer. Although the jurisprudence of the Right To Be Heard is rooted in The Latin maxim, ‘Audi Alteram Partem’ the principle of natural justice where every person gets a chance of being heard and no one must be condemned unheard but here we wanna deal with practical aspects of the notion
Right to Life and Personal Liberty, Constitution, Article 21. Ok, ok ! Freedom of Speech and Expression, Article 19. Ok, great . “Right to be Heard”, oh what? not ok?
Right to be heard, hm. does it mean that I say something stupid and you “gotta here it ” because I have the right to be heard? No my friend,it’s not that. Right to be heard is something technical vested on you by the virtue of being a consumer and the Supreme Court has made its pragametic relevance far more accessible and pervasive.
As a consumer you can represent yourself in the consumer forums and other appropriate plateforms related to unfair trade practices. You don’t even need an advocate for that. ( Well, Such a bad news for lawyers like ‘me’). For ‘us’ nevertheless, right to be heard emanates from the great Article 21 of our Constitution. The apex court had been shedding light on this from the long time breaking the ice in Sivakasi Chamber Of Match … vs Western India Match Co. Ltd. on 20 May, 1977 curbing monopolies and the restrictive trade practices .
In the present era based on its impact many organisations have created their own consumer redressal cell, to resolve your grievances. They are online so don’t worry for those applications and paper , pen, pencil . Most useful of these all is the Public Grievance Portal of the Government, the most accessible tool available at the tap of your finger based on your right to be heard. If your grievance is related to some service related to a government agency. The PG portal is there for your application to be registered online. The grievance never gets alloted digitally and within specific timelines the issue has to be resolved by the concerned department.
The consumer forums and the appellate tribunals, the procedures and technical aspects we will deliver soon. For the non legal background the present effort is to keep these legal awareness blogs as short as possible. Nevertheless the idea needs to be pitched, segmented and orbited. We welcome your feedback and intend to expand this initiative as the demand and queries related to legal awareness spread like a forest fire into the masses. Your queries and positive criticism is welcomed. No stone will be left unturned to resolve your legal questions and queries by us. The legal aid we intend is getting on the house of fire with your support.
