Consumer Protection Case Study

Here are some interesting case studies on consumer protection. You can use these case studies during your internship.

Case 1 Chetan Prakash v/s MET Institute of Computer Science

Prakash was in final year of BSc when he sought admission to the Institute for MCS. The institute had stipulated that in order to pursue the MCS course, the student has to clear III year exam.

He deposited the fees before the declaration of result. Seeing that he had failed in exams, he tried to withdraw the admission and requested a refund, to which the institute did not respond. Finally, he sent a legal notice to the institute and then lodged a complaint in the consumer forum.

How can you solve this problem?

Case 2 Krishnan Kumar Bajaj v/s PepsiCo.

Bajaj, a resident of Ahmedabad, had purchased a Lay’s packet on 28 June 2010 and sensed it's being underweight. He wrote twice to the manufacturer. While the first letter got no response, in reply to the second, it offered Bajaj gifts hamper which he refused.

Bajaj approached CERS, who wrote to PepsiCo. The company refused to accept their fault and gave several unsatisfactory clarifications. CERS took the issue to the Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, which also gave a favorable ruling. The company asked for the bill of purchase which Bajaj could not produce.

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Case 3 Dharamdas Pritiani v/s HDFC Ergo General Insurance Company Ltd.

The complainant was advised by the doctors to undergo treatment upon suffering from a heart ailment in 2008-09. He then underwent a rare treatment called Enhanced External Counter Pulsation (EECP). The treatment was completed in 45 sittings, cost Rs. 1, 18,000.

HDFC Ergo rejected the complainant’s claim saying the treatment was experimental and not recognized by the insurer. The insurance company also claimed that a policyholder must be hospitalized for at least 24 hours for reimbursement.

The complainant claimed that the treatment was recognized by the united states, and 40 hospitals in India use EECP method to treat heart patients. The forum said the documents furnished by Pritiani support his claim. The complainant was a heart patient, who underwent a treatment, which did not require hospitalization, thus he should be reimbursed Rs. 1, 18,000.

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