After 2 yrs, disputes redressal body gets officiating prez

Panaji: After being without a president for two-and-a-half-years, the Goa State Disputes Redressal Commission now has an officiating president.
The department of civil supplies and consumer affairs has appointed Dhananjay Jog, a member of the commission, to officiate as president till the post is filled.
On June 1, the state government had announced that retired judge of the Bombay high court, S P Tavade, was appointed as president of the commission. But Tavade took up the post as president of the commission in Maharashtra instead.
In January this year, the high court of Bombay at Goa gave the state government three months to fill up the vacant posts of president and three members of the state commission. However, the government only recently appointed three members — Varsha V Wadikar, Nagesh Colvalkar and Rachana Gonsalves — in addition to Jog, to the commission.
“The state administration comprises several IAS officers and the least that is expected is that they find solutions to the problems now set out in the affidavit so that the commission functions effectively in terms of the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act,” the high court had stated, adding that only difficulties were being portrayed, with no serious efforts to resolve the same.
The petition in the high court was filed by Dr J De Souza who highlighted an extremely unfortunate situation where that the very functioning of the state commission had been brought to a virtual standstill on account of the inordinate delay in filling up the post of president and three of its four-member posts.
Until the three members were appointed, for almost a year and a half, the state commission was left with only the single member and no officiating president, leaving it unable to pass final orders without the required quorum, leaving aggrieved consumers in the lurch, with delayed justice.
Now, in order to clear the backlog, the commission with its team of four, has identified additional premises in Junta House building and is looking at having two courtrooms running simultaneously.