Jurisdiction of the State Consumer Commission: Original, Appellate and Revisional

The State Commission wears three hats. As a court of first instance it hears the State's mid-value complaints, above fifty lakh and up to two crore rupees of consideration paid under the 2021 Rules, and complaints against unfair contracts up to ten crore. As an appellate court it corrects the District Commissions on appeal under Section 41. As a revisional court it supervises them for jurisdictional error even where no appeal lies. This note takes Section 47 and its companions limb by limb.

1. Original Jurisdiction — Section 47(1)(a)

• The band: consideration paid above fifty lakh and up to two crore rupees, measured, as at every tier, by the price paid and never the compensation claimed; the flat costing 1.2 crore belongs here though the claim runs far higher.
• Unfair contracts: the State Commission carries the special original jurisdiction to entertain complaints against unfair contracts where consideration does not exceed ten crore rupees, paired with its power to declare unfair terms null and void (Section 47(1)(a)(ii) with the declaratory power discussed in the unfair-contract note); above ten crore, that jurisdiction belongs to the National Commission.
• Territory: Section 47(4) applies the familiar venue menu, opposite party's residence, business, branch or work; cause of action wholly or partly; or the complainant's residence or place of work, within the State.

2. Appellate Jurisdiction — Section 41

Any person aggrieved by an order of a District Commission may appeal to the State Commission within forty-five days, extendable on sufficient cause. Two disciplines attach. The deposit: an appellant who was ordered to pay any amount must first deposit fifty per cent of that amount, the condition that filters dilatory appeals by judgment-debtors. The settlement bar: no appeal lies against a District Commission order made with the consent of both parties, including an order recording a mediation settlement. In the appeal, the State Commission may confirm, modify or set aside the order, and its appellate orders travel onward to the National Commission only on a substantial question of law under Section 51(3), so on facts the State Commission is, for most disputes, the final court.

3. Revisional Jurisdiction — Section 47(1)(b)

The State Commission may call for the records and pass appropriate orders in any consumer dispute pending before or decided by any District Commission within the State, where it appears that the District Commission has exercised a jurisdiction not vested in it by law, or has failed to exercise a jurisdiction so vested, or has acted in the exercise of its jurisdiction illegally or with material irregularity. The three grounds are the classic revisional trinity: revision is supervision of jurisdiction, not a rehearing on merits, the State Commission interferes where the District Commission took a case it could not, refused one it should have, or proceeded in a manner the law does not permit, and not merely because it would have decided differently. Revision thus fills the space appeal leaves: interlocutory jurisdictional errors in pending matters, and decided matters where the defect is jurisdictional.

4. The Other Powers of the Tier

• Transfer (Section 48): on the application of a complainant or of its own motion, the State Commission may transfer any complaint pending before one District Commission to another within the State, at any stage, where the interest of justice so requires.
• Review (Section 50): the State Commission may review its own orders where there is an error apparent on the face of the record, on its own motion or on application within thirty days.
• Declaratory power: in unfair-contract complaints, the jurisdiction to declare offending terms null and void, the remedial edge unique to the State and National tiers.
• Administrative supervision (Section 70): oversight of the District Commissions' functioning, distinct from, and never a substitute for, its judicial powers over them.

5. Related Topics and Provisions

• State Commission constitution (Topic 33): the body wielding these powers
• Jurisdiction of the National Commission (Topic 36): the tier above, and the substantial-question second appeal
• Unfair contract (Topic 18): the special jurisdiction's subject
• Pecuniary and territorial jurisdiction (Topics 37 and 38): the axes compared across tiers