Case Comment: Joint Labour Commissioner and Registering Officer v. Kesar Lal Civil Appeal No. 2014 of 2020 Making Justice more Accessible

Abstract

The Surpreme Court of India has time and again stepped up to the occasion to make justice more accessible to consumers by interpreting the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 (the "CPA") in a purposive manner. In Joint Labour Commissioner v. Kesar Lal, the Supreme Court was called upon to decide whether registered workers under the the Building and other Construction Workers' (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996 (the "1996 Act") were consumers under Section 2(1)(d) of the CPA and whether the welfare boards set up under the 1996 Act were indeed providing any service to the registered workers against consideration, a sine qua non for making the welfare boards' services amenable to jurisdiction of the CPA. The Supreme Court found that the registered workers were indeed consumers under the CPA who were being provided services against the constributions made by them which it was held constituted consideration under the CPA.