CONSUMER RIGHTS Pushpa Girimaji Consumers are often victims of poor quality water supplied by the civic authorities. Besides water-borne diseases in many districts of the country, consumers suffer the debilitating effects of high levels of toxic heavy metals and even pesticides and other chemicals in water. Now two recent orders of the apex body have opened the doors of the court to petitions from citizens on the poor quality of water. Both the orders give directions to the municipal bodies to ensure the safety of water supplied to the citizens. Interestingly, in 1994, when a complaint seeking redressal against the poor quality of water supplied by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) was filed before it, the apex court was of the view that the consumer forum had no jurisdiction to address such issues, and that the petition, more in the nature of a public interest litigation, should be filed in a regular court of law. This was challenged before the Supreme Court by the petitioners