The Supreme Court (SC) in M/S Daddys Builders Pvt. Ltd. v Manisha Bhargava holds that the District Forum has no power to extend the time to file the response to the complaint beyond the period of 15 days in addition to 30 days as is envisaged under Section 13 of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986.
The SC relied on the decision of the SC Constitution Bench in the case of New India Assurance company Limited v Hilli Multipurpose Cold Storage Private Limited [(2020) 5 SCC 757] to arrive at the decision.
As early in 2002 a three-judge bench of the SC had decided in the case of J.J. Merchant v Shrinath Chaturvedi, [(2002) 6 SCC 635] the consumer fora has no power to extend the time for filing a reply or written statement beyond the period prescribed under the Act.
Thereafter there was a contrary decision by a two-judge bench, relying on which some district fora allowed condonation beyond a period of 45 days as stipulated in the act. Hence the matter was referred to the Constitutional Bench cited earlier.
Therefore, the SC in M/S Daddys Builders Pvt. Ltd. v Manisha Bhargava reaffirmed that the consumer fora have no jurisdiction and/or power to accept the written statement beyond the period of 45 days.
