The Supreme Court has decided to examine if the National Consumer Commission can direct deposit of entire amount or any amount higher than 50% of the Source: Live Law
On Monday, the Supreme Court stayed a consumer tribunal order directing production house Yash Raj Films to pay Rs 15,000 to a teacher in Maharashtra, who felt cheated because the song ‘Jabra Fan’ from Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Fan was edited out of the film, as per a report by Hindustan Times. The bench questioned YRF about its decision to market Fan with the song but not include it in the film. “The problem is that you (Yash Raj Films) show something in the trailer which is not there in the movie. When the trailer is released, it is part of the movie. Why were you marketing your movie with the song when you knew it was meant to be only for promotion?” Supreme Court to YRF Afreen Fatima Zaidi had complained in 2016 that she and her family went to watch Fan after listening to ‘Jabra Fan’. However, they felt deceived when they didn’t find the track in the movie. The district consumer redressal forum rejected her complaint, but in 2017 the state commission ordered YRF to pay Rs 15,000 to Zaidi. The production house challenged the decision in National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission. During the Supreme Court hearing, Advocate Naomi Chandra, representing YRF, stated that it was common practice in the industry to use songs in trailers that don’t necessarily have to feature in films. To which the court said, “If there is a common practice in the industry that does not mean that the practice should continue”. The report also states that the court observed the question to be decided is whether a film producer can be said to be a service provider since the movie ticket is a contract between the person who buys it and the cinema hall owner. Source : The Quint
The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) passed an order to award Rs 2 crore compensation to a model for a wrong haircut and hair treatment given to her by staff at a salon in a five-star hotel in Delhi. While passing the order, the commission observed, “The complainant was a model for hair products because of her long hair. She has done modeling for VLCC and Pantene. But due to hair cutting against her instructions, by the Opposite Party No 2, she lost her expected assignments and suffered a huge loss which completely changed her lifestyle and shattered her dream to be a top model.” The commission said the model, who was working as a senior management professional, lost her job and underwent “severe mental breakdown and trauma” due to the “medical negligence” while giving the hair treatment by the staff at the salon. “She was also working as a senior management professional and earning a decent income. She underwent severe mental breakdown and trauma due to negligence of the Opposite Party No.2 in cutting her hair and could not concrete her job and finally, she lost her job. This apart, the Opposite Party No.2 is also guilty of medical negligence in hair treatment. Her scalp was burnt and still there is allergy and itching due to fault of the staff of Opposite Party No.2,” the order stated. The model said she was “left with little or almost no hair” due to the faulty hair treatment given to her. “She submitted that due to her long well-cared hair she modelled for prestigious brands like VLCC and Pantene for hair products and she was also planning to pursue modelling as her side career. She was also offered a movie as her hair complemented her presentable demeanour. It is submitted that she has gone through the pain and trauma for the last two years after this incident,” the commission observed. Source : India Today
Delhi Model Receives Compensated Exorbitantly for Wrong Haircut Read More »
While WHO’s revised recommendations for air quality standards are not legally binding for countries, they may represent a turning point in the way we approach air pollution globally. The World Health Organisation (WHO) released a revised Global Air Quality Guidelines on Wednesday, announcing more stringent limits for six pollutant categories —particulate matter (PM), ozone (O3), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) sulfur dioxide (SO2) and carbon monoxide (CO). The latest WHO guidelines provide clear evidence of the damage air pollution inflicts on human health, at even lower concentrations than previously understood. The guidelines recommend new air quality levels to protect the health of populations, by reducing levels of key air pollutants, some of which also contribute to climate change. “Air pollution is a threat to health in all countries, but it hits people in low- and middle-income countries the hardest,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at the virtual launch of the guidelines. “WHO’s new Air Quality Guidelines are an evidence-based and practical tool for improving the quality of the air on which all life depends. I urge all countries and all those fighting to protect our environment to put them to use to reduce suffering and save lives,” he further said. Since the WHO’s last 2005 global update, there has been a marked increase of evidence that shows how air pollution affects different aspects of health. Taking cognisance of these factors, the WHO has adjusted almost all the air quality norms downwards, warning that exceeding the new air quality guideline levels is associated with significant risks to health. At the same time, however, adhering to them could save millions of lives. “Since the last update in 2005, a substantial new body of evidence has accumulated, further demonstrating the degree to which air pollution affects all parts of the body, from the brain to a growing baby in a mother’s womb, at even lower concentrations than previously observed,” the WHO Director-General stressed. Here’s why levels of air pollutants on rise in Indian cities The WHO’s revised guidelines prescribe annual PM2.5 average at 5 ug/m3, bringing it down from 2005 limits set at 10 ug/m3. PM10 annual average is now 15 ug/m3 in comparison to the earlier norm of 20 ug/m3. NO2 levels, which are primarily attributable to vehicular emissions, have been revised to 10 ug/m3, in comparison to 40 ug/m3 in 2005. “These new guidelines will have major implications for public health. They provide a practical tool for improving air quality around the world, and a robust evidence-base for developing national and local air quality standards,” Ghebreyesus said. While these guidelines not legally-binding, the WHO recommendations on air quality are an evidence-informed tool for policymakers to guide legislation and policies, in order to reduce levels of air pollutants and decrease the burden of disease that results from exposure to air pollution across the world. “It is common knowledge that lesser the exposure, the healthier is the outcome. The WHO by reducing the PM2.5 and 10 exposure levels under the new air quality guidelines has reemphasised the need for putting in more efforts to control particulate matter concentration in air. But for countries like India, it is a huge challenge to meet these guidelines. Nonetheless I hope that efforts by all stakeholders will be intensified so as to make honest efforts to aim towards the revised levels,” Dr Arun Sharma, director of ICMR’s National Institute for Implementation Research of Non-Communicable Diseases said. As low-and-middle-income countries like India experience increased disparities in air pollution exposure due to large-scale urbanisation and economic development which has largely been driven by fossil fuels, it has resulted in an unequal burden of disease and mortality for its population. India last revised its National Ambient Air Quality Standards in 2009 —setting annual averages for PM2.5 (40 ug/m3), PM10 (60 ug/m3) and NO2 (40 us/m3) — which were more relaxed in comparison to the WHO’s 2005 guidelines and other South Asian countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal. The WHO guidelines, also often referred to as ‘safe levels’, ring the assumption that they will lower the risk of disease or death. In 2013, outdoor air pollution and particulate matter were classified as carcinogenic by the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). An analyst at Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, Sunil Dahiya stressed the need for India to revise it air quality standards in view of the elevated pollution level in the country. “It’s been more than a decade that India notified the national ambient air quality standards in 2009 and lot of new evidence on impacts of different pollutants on human health at lower pollution levels have come into existence necessitating it for Indian government to revise the standards similar to the WHO’s action,” Dahiya said, adding, “The good thing is that India is already working on revising the standards, we just need to make sure we make use of evidence gathered by the WHO and others on increasing and severe health impacts of pollutants at lower levels and try to aim towards moving closer to the WHO prescribed levels for pollutants.” Both PM2.5 and PM10 are capable of penetrating deep into the lungs but PM2.5 can even enter the bloodstream, primarily resulting in cardiovascular and respiratory impacts, and also affecting other organs. PM is primarily generated by fuel combustion in different sectors, including transport, energy, households, industry, and from agriculture. While these guidelines are not legally binding for countries, the new recommendations for air quality standards, if adopted by nations, can save millions of lives and contribute to climate change. Findings by Greenpeace India show that of the 100 global cities in 2020, at least 92 exceeded the WHO’s revised 2021 air quality guidelines, which include 5 Indian cities as well. Delhi’s annual PM2.5 trends in 2020 was 16.8 times more than the WHO’s 2021 guidelines of 5 ug/m3, while Mumbai’s exceeded 8-fold, Kolkata 9.4, Chennai 5.4, Hyderabad seven-fold and Ahmedabad exceeded 9.8-fold. Professor SN Tripathi of Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur and a steering committee member of
WHO revises global air quality, sets new quality levels for protection of health Read More »
In a Twitter post, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya introduced the logo and said, “@FSSAIIndia launched a logo for vegan foods to help consumers easily identify and differentiate from non-vegan foods. This will empower the people to make informed food choices” Considering the rise in veganism and, as such, the consumption of vegan food products, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has introduced a new logo to “help consumers easily identify and differentiate from non-vegan foods.” The new green-coloured logo has a ‘V’ inscribed (in the middle of a square box) with a small plant on top of it and vegan written at the bottom. The design is such, informed FSSAI, that it resonates with the current logo (that has a dot in the middle of a square) for vegetarian and non-vegetarian products. In a Twitter post, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya introduced the logo and said, “@FSSAIIndia launched a logo for vegan foods to help consumers easily identify and differentiate from non-vegan foods. This will empower the people to make informed food choices.” FSSAI already has logos for vegetarian and non-vegetarian products, which are dots in green and brown colours, respectively. “Earlier, we had logos for vegetarian (green dot) and non-vegetarian foods (brown dot). We have a growing movement towards veganism, so, we have come out with a vegan logo,” FSSAI CEO Arun Singhal told ANI while launching the logo. The logo has been developed by Kruti Manish Rathore of Mount Caramel College, Bengaluru who is pursuing Masters in Food Science and Nutrition. All vegan products will now be required to carry the logo on their packaging. What is veganism? “Veganism (vegan diet) is a kind of lifestyle that attempts to exclude all forms of meat and products that are derived from animals, since the vegan society thinks all animals have the right to be free of human use, be it for food, clothes, or any other useful purposes,” Ruchi Sharma, nutritionist, and founder of EAT.FIT.REPEAT told indianexpress.com in an earlier interview. The movement has been gaining steam in India of late and several companies have been launching products such as plant-based meat, plant-based beverages, and more. A recent example has been Reteish and Genelia Deshmukh’s Imagine Meats venture which has been garnering a lot of attention owing to its plant-based meat offerings. Some of the other popular brands include Urban Platter, RAW Pressery, Epigamia, Ahimsa Food, Vegeta Gold among others. According to Sharma, some vegetarians consume animal by-products that do not involve slaughtering, “such as milk, eggs or honey”. Veganism, however, does not allow the consumption of any animal-derived product, be it “milk, honey, meat, eggs, whey, casein, or even products like leather, silk, beeswax, latex, soaps, etc., that involve the use of animals”. What do you think? Source : The Indian Express
FSSAI launches logo for vegan foods; know more about it here Read More »
PURI: The holy town of Puri on Monday achieved a landmark with the launch of the ambitious ‘Drink from Tap’ mission by the Odisha Government. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik dedicated the project to the coastal town in a virtual event. About 2.5 lakh residents of Puri municipal area will now get potable clean drinking water 24×7 under the new project. Over 400 water fountains have also been installed in various parts of the town as part of the SUJAL: Drink from Tap Mission which will cater to millions of tourists. Addressing the gathering at Baliapanda, the CM said, with launch of the unique Drink from Tap Mission, a new chapter in the history of the State has been created. “Puri became the first heritage town in the country to get this facility. It is now in the league of international cities like London, New York, and Singapore to supply quality piped drinking water from tap 24/7,” he added. Reiterating his Government’s mission for safe water, Naveen said, quality drinking water is closely linked with human health, development index, and economy. To supply quality drinking water, the Government has increased its budget from ₹200 cr to ₹4000 cr in five years, he added. Apart from the resident of Puri, 2 crore tourists who visit the city they can get quality drinking water right from the tap without the need of storage and filtering. Drinking water fountains have been set up at 400 places, eliminating the need to carry plastic bottles, he added. Additionally, the Drink from Tap mission will reduce the generation of plastic waste by 400 tonne per annum. Naveen thanked the residents of Puri for their cooperation in making Rath Yatra a success. He applauded the role of Jalasathi volunteers operating under Mission Shakti. Recalling the damage inflicted by the FANI cyclone in 2019, Naveen said, he had visited Puri two days later and was disheartened to see the extent of the damage. “I have resolved to transform the abode of Mahaprabhu Jagannath into an international place of heritage. With blessings of Lord Jagannath and cooperation of residents, the Srikshetra project is making steady progress,” he said. Minister for Housing and Urban Development Pratap Jena described the launch as a landmark step by the Chief Minister to make Puri an international standard city. Very soon 16 more urban areas with a 40 lakh population would be included in the Drink from Tap Mission while efforts are on to implement this in all the urban areas of the state, said Jena. Executive engineer of Public Health Engineering Organisation (PHEO) Puri informed that 110 modern public stand-posts along the Badadanda (Grand Road) and nine by the sea beach area have been installed besides existing 1100 stand posts in the town. The old stand posts are being replaced with steel pipes and taps. At present, 36 MLD clean drinking water is being supplied. About 135-140 litre of drinking water per head per day is provided to residents which is the highest in the country, he said. 5T Secretary VK Pandian conducted the meeting, while Chief Secretary SC Mahapatra and Development Commissioner PK Jena, and WATCO MD PK Swain were present. Source : Click Here
Puri first Indian city to achieve 24/7 quality drinking water supply: Odisha govt Read More »
BENGALURU: A city-based advocate and activist has approached Bangalore Rural and Urban Ist Additional District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission with a complaint against a hotel for rounding off his bill to the nearest rupee and shortchanging him of 40 paise in the process. Activist T Narasimha Murthy, who filed the complaint under Section 35 of the Consumer Protection Act 2019, stated he visited the hotel near Infantry Road in March this year and his bill totalled 264.60. However, it was rounded off to Rs 265, something which Murthy terms an unfair trade practice. Seeking an explanation, he approached the hotel manager and others, but failed to receive a satisfactory answer. Requests made by Murthy to show directions or orders passed in this regard were also futile. “If the hotel collects an excess amount to the extent of 40 paise or 50 paise on the actual bill, it will earn lakhs of rupees annually by cheating innocent customers,” Murthy claimed. The commission heard the matter on Friday and adjourned it to August 20. “Perused the complaint and documents…The complainant is directed to take the photo of the notice prepared by this office in his mobile and send/deliver it to the opposite party personally or through WhatsApp and SMS to the effect of filing of the complaint, its register number and date for appearance,” the commission’s order read. PC Rao, president, Bruhat Bangalore Hotels Association, said, “I will refrain from making any comments since the matter is sub-judice.” However, another hotelier told TOI there was no malafide intention behind rounding off the bill amount. “Since 50 paise coin or other coins of denominations less than Re 1 are not in use, we round off the amount to the nearest rupee. For example, if the bill totals Rs 264.50, we will round it off to Rs 264,” he said. Asked whether everyone follows the same rule, he said: “We are not sure. We will discuss the matter in our next association meeting.”
Bengaluru advocate sues hotel for rounding off bill Read More »
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This is to bring to your kind attention that on 1st October, 2020, the Supreme Court of India delivered a judgement containing detailed guidelines with regard to the refund of airline tickets, both domestic and international, that stood cancelled due to the pandemic and the consequential lock down. The judgement of the Apex Court came in light of various writ petitions that were clubbed together because of the similarity of cause of action. It essentially lays down that for all cancelled travel due to the lockdown, full refund should be made by the airlines to the consumers within the stipulated time and manner as mentioned therein. If the respective airline cannot make such a refund, a credit shell of the same amount shall be given to the consumers within the stipulated time that shall be transferable at the instance of the consumer. The Court also established the validity of such a credit shell. The 3 Judge Bench, consisting of Justice Ashok Bhushan, Justice R. Subhash Reddy and Justice M. R. Shah, delivered an all inclusive judgement keeping the smallest details in mind while also drawing a balance between the loss suffered by individual consumers on one hand and by the airlines on the other. The interests of both the parties were considered practically and handled with great sensitivity. Attached herewith is the original and full judgement of the Apex Court of India for more details. Click Here for Full Judgement An Aware Consumer is a Protected Consumer.
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The Covid-19 pandemic has caused immense disruption to our social and working lives. As we battle through these challenging times, we are being confronted with increasing questions and views as to how this pandemic will impact the sustainability profession. The NINE KEY CONCEPTS OF MAHAMANA DECLARATIONS are outputs from the webinar which minutely examined “The Role of indigenous alternative medicine systems in India, Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, SiddhaSowa-Rigpaand Homoeopathy (abbreviated as AYUSH) in fight against Corona Virus globally”. As no known treatment is available to fight against Covid -19 type viruses, under the circumstances, a special attention is needed to focus on how to access indigenous alternative medicine systems AYUSH to lessen morbidity and mortality in 1.39 Billion consumers in India and 7.8 Billion consumers around the world. The first international Virtual Seminar was held from 27th April to 2nd May 2020 during the global lockdown called by more than 100 countries from March 2020 onwards. This Six-Day virtual Webinar was organised by Faculty of Ayurveda, IMS BHU, Varanasi, India. The history of medical education in Varanasi, the oldest living city in the world and the cultural capital of India, is at least 2500 years old. It was here that the great Indian Surgeon Sushruta lived and practiced medicine and surgery around the 5th century B.C. and also compiled his treatise, the Sushruta Samhita. In view of this perspective it was but natural that medical education would become one of the priorities of the then developing BHU way back in 1920s. Read more>>>