Digital Justice and Consumer Rights
Digital Justice and Consumer Rights
As India celebrates National Consumer Day, 2025, the theme of “Efficient and Speedy Disposal through Digital Justice” underscores a fundamental truth at the heart of consumer protection: rights matter only when they can be enforced quickly, affordably, and without unnecessary hardship. At its core, the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 is built on this simple idea—that a consumer should not have to wait years to obtain relief. It places a clear responsibility on the State not merely to recognise consumer rights, but to ensure that these rights are enforced in a meaningful and effective manner.
Chitwan Sharma, Legal Consultant
By its very nature, consumer disputes are high in number, low in individual value and extremely time-sensitive. When resolving disputes drags on for years and demands substantial time and money, the protection of consumer rights becomes little more than an empty promise.
With the rapid rise of consumerism, volume of pending disputes has been steadily increasing. This gap has widened sharply with the rise of digital consumerism. Online shopping, digital payments, app-based services and subscription platforms have multiplied consumer transactions—and with them, disputes. Expecting traditional, physically run courts to absorb this growing volume is simply unrealistic. Courts operate with limited judicial time, fixed infrastructure and heavy backlogs. Judges are also humans after all; there is only so much volume any adjudicatory system can handle before delays become inevitable. In such a system, even a strong legal framework struggles to deliver timely justice.
This is where digital justice becomes the only practical answer. Digital platforms allow consumer disputes to be filed, tracked and resolved without the friction of physical processes. They remove the need for travel, cut down paperwork and reduce procedural delays. More importantly, digital systems are scalable to a much higher volume that any physical court. Unlike physical courts, they can process a much larger number of cases simultaneously, making them better suited to match the pace and volume of modern consumer markets.
Digital Courts also complement the purpose of mediation under the Consumer Protection Act. Most consumer disputes do not require prolonged legal battles; they require quick, fair settlements. Online mediation and settlement mechanisms enable faster resolution, lower costs and better outcomes for both consumers and businesses. This approach focuses on resolution rather than rigid adjudication, which is often more meaningful for everyday consumers.
That being said, India’s digital transition comes with real challenges. Digital access and literacy remain uneven, particularly in rural areas and among vulnerable groups. These gaps cannot be ignored. Digital justice must therefore be supported by assisted access, simplified platforms and hybrid models that help consumers navigate the system.
Looking ahead, the question is not whether digital justice should play a role in consumer protection—it already does. The real challenge is ensuring that digital systems are designed to absorb the scale of consumerism, reduce delays, and stay true to the Act’s original promise: justice that is accessible, timely and effective for every consumer.
