When the Supreme Court was appraised of this development, the NCDRC members who passed the order – namely, Subhash Chandra (presiding member) and Dr. Sadhna Shanker – were asked to submit an explanation.
Representing the NCDRC members, Attorney General (AG) R Venkataramani told the Supreme Court that the lapse on the part of the members was inadvertent and unintentional.
The NCDRC members also filed an affidavit containing an apology, which further stated that the consumer forum members were unaware of the Supreme Court’s March 1 order.
However, this was contested by Ireo Grace, which contended that the NCDRC members cannot feign ignorance of the Supreme Court’s interim order.
The Court found some force in this stance.
“A bare perusal of the aforesaid order passed by the NCDRC on 08th March, 2024 itself demonstrates that counsel for the appellant herein (Judgement Debtor) had handed over a copy of the order passed by this Court on 01st March, 2024. It is implausible to accept the explanation offered now that the aforesaid order passed by this Court was not brought to the notice of the NCDRC,” the Court said.
Source: Barandbench
