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Judgment
Leave granted.
This is an appeal for setting aside order dated 06.09.2011 passed by the learned Single Judge of the Calcutta High Court whereby he allowed the petition filed by the respondent under Article 227 of the Constitution and set aside order dated 29.04.2011 passed by the State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, West Bengal (for short,`the State Commission'') in S.C. Case No. MA/51/2011 in CC/87/2009.
We have heard Shri Ranjan Mukherjee, learned counsel for the appellant and Shri Tapas Dutta, the respondent who has appeared in person and carefully perused the record.
In our view, the impugned order is liable to be set aside only on the ground that an effective alternative remedy was available to the respondent under Section 21(b) of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 for challenging the order passed by the State Commission whereby it declined to set aside order dated 04.02.2011 vide which ex-parte order dated 29.11.2010 passed in favour of the respondent was recalled.
This Court has in Om Prakash Saini v. DCM Ltd. and others (2010) 6 Scale 294 and Nivedita Sharma v. Cellular Operators Assn. of India and others (2011) 13 Scale 584 held that the remedy available to an aggrieved person under Section 21(b) is an effective alternative remedy and the High Court cannot exercise power under Article 227 of the Constitution ignoring the availability of such remedy.
In view of the law laid down in the aforementioned judgments, the appeal is allowed and the impugned order is set aside. However, it is made clear that the respondent shall be free to challenge orders dated 04.02.2011 and 29.04.2011 passed by the State Commission by filing an appropriate application before the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (for short, `the National Commission''). We also direct that if the respondent files an appropriate application within a period of two months from today, then the appellant herein shall not be entitled to raise an objection of limitation and the National Commission shall decide the application on merits.