ACCESS TO JUSTICE TOWARDS THE CREATION OF INCLUSIVE SOCIAL ORDER that “the Consumer Protection Act and the RERA Act neither exclude nor contradict each other”;29 “they are concurrent remedies operating independently and without primacy.”30 However, the added merit of the three-Judge bench in Experion Developers, in our own view, lies, not in just reaffirming the settled principles of law but, in putting the seminal idea of ‘access to justice’ on firmer footing by theorising the whole process of decision-making in the matters of ‘choice of forums’: “When Statutes provisioning judicial remedies fall for construction, the choice of the interpretative outcomes should also depend on the constitutional duty to create effective judicial remedies in furtherance of access to justice. A meaningful interpretation that effectuates access to justice is a constitutional imperative and it is this duty that must inform the interpretative criterion.”31 [Emphasis ours] “When Statutes provide more than one judicial fora for effectuating a right or to enforce a duty-obligation, it is a feature of remedial choices offered by the State for an effective access to justice. Therefore, while interpreting statutes provisioning plurality of remedies, it is necessary for Courts to harmonise the provisions in a constructive manner.”32 [Emphasis supplied] Acting on this abstracted principle, in the Experion Developers case, the Supreme Court had no difficulty in holding that the consumer (the respondent petitioner) was not barred from invoking the jurisdiction of the Commission under the Consumer Protection Act and could seek such reliefs as she considered appropriate, and that position was similar to the protection provided under Section 18 of the RERA Act.33 (C) Access to justice via judicial remedy in refining the principles of Justice One of the most significant features of the common law tradition is the continual refinement of the principles of justice through successive courts (lower to higher) and from case to case. This practice principle is further institutionalised through the statutory provision of appeals from the lower court to the higher court in the hierarchy 29 30 31 32 33 Experion Developers, para 14.1. Ibid. Ibid. Id., para 14.2. Id., para 16. 9