Deficiency in service
Topic: Consumer Rights and Consumer Protection · NCERT: Class 10, Ch 5 "Consumer Rights"
Meaning
Deficiency in service is any shortfall in the quality of a service that was promised or that the law or contract requires. It is one of the main grounds for complaining to a consumer commission. The commission can order compensation based on the degree of damage, including money for mental agony and litigation costs. Services given fully free of charge are outside consumer law, so a free service cannot be deficient in this legal sense.
Example
Rajbir Singh of Kalkaji made an insurance claim after his cellphone was stolen, and the company refused it. The consumer commission held the refusal to be a deficiency in service and ordered the company to pay ₹7,000.
Don't confuse with
- Defective goods: a defect is a fault in a product, such as a faulty wall clock or scooter engine. Deficiency is a shortfall in a service, such as banking, insurance, postal or medical service.
Related concepts
- Three-tier consumer redressal machinery
- Quasi-judicial body
- Pecuniary jurisdiction
- Medical negligence
- Class action suit