Author : Kushangi Sameliya
Abstract:
The Consumer Protection Act safeguards the rights and provide speedy adjudication to consumers. Whereas the Arbitration process under The Arbitration and Conciliation Act provides speedy adjudication without unnecessary expense or delay with the involvement of third-party outside the court. Whenever there is an arbitration clause present in a contract the parties refer the disputes arising out of the contract in future to an arbitrator, but an arbitration clause does not bar the consumer to approach consumer forum for remedy. These days Indians are shifting to the online shopping platform and being ignorant of not checking the agreement end up being caught up into being a party to an arbitration. This makes less options available to a consumer to approach statutory remedies and endangers the interest of a consumer. Consumers who have lesser bargaining power than that of the service providers shall not be pushed towards the relatively cumbersome process of the arbitration where there may be other more affordable and efficacious low public law remedies available. Therefore, it creates a situation where it becomes necessary to identify whether a consumer can also approach a Consumer Forum even if there is an arbitration clause in the contract and whether the Consumer forum is bound to refer the matter to the arbitrator. Consumer laws and arbitration laws within the country seek to supply speedy dispute resolution mechanisms. However, in this paper we explore the question that arises is that, if a consumer dispute arises out of an agreement having an arbitration clause, would consumer forum have jurisdiction to make a decision in that matter, or the matter will be mentioned to arbitration?
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