In Brief
Apartment buyers in a Haryana housing project filed a group consumer complaint against the builder for delayed possession and various other grievances. The National Commission dismissed the complaint as not maintainable because it was filed on behalf of only some (not all) affected buyers without formal permission under the Consumer Protection Act's class action rules. The Supreme Court upheld this dismissal, holding that Section 12(1)(c) of the Act requires complaints representing multiple consumers to cover all consumers with the same grievance, not merely a subset, and must comply with procedural requirements under the Code of Civil Procedure. The Court permitted the buyers to re-approach the State Commission with the evidence already gathered.
The lawyer headnote and full judgment text are available to registered users.