By Anushka Gupta
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Unless you are living a life far from normalcy, you have ‘consumed’ an item or a service. In fact, it is likely that you consume a lot of items and services on a daily basis. Thus, there may have been times where you found yourself dissatisfied with the object of consumption. Luckily, for all us consumers, Indian Law has a provision to make sure your concerns are heard and addressed through Consumer Courts.
Consumer Courts are special-purpose courts set up to help consumers who have faced a ‘Deficiency of Service’. As per Section 2(1)(g) of the Consumer Protection Act of 2019, ‘Deficiency of Service’ is any fault, imperfection, shortcoming or inadequacy in the quality, nature and manner of performance which is required to be maintained by or under any law for the time being in force or has been undertaken to be performed by a person in pursuance of a contract or otherwise in relation to any service. This definition takes into its ambit many situations including (but not limited to):
●
The goods being sold were found to be defective
●
There was negligence or carelessness on the part of
the service provider causing troubles to the consumer
●
The seller had charged the consumer a price that
went above and beyond the amount that is allowed as per law
●
The seller or service provider had engaged in
unfair trade practices such misleading of consumers, misrepresentation or fraud
●
The seller or service provider has engaged in
restrictive trade practices which minimise the right of choice that is
available to consumers
●
The goods being sold were hazardous to the consumer
and caused or could have caused injury
This article will attempt
to simplify this process of filing a complaint about such cases in the Consumer
Court.
Before filing a complaint, it is important for an individual to meet a few prerequisites. These are (a) the individual must have availed the product or service for money because no claim can be made on a free object and (b) the item must have been consumed by the person filing the dispute and not anyone they have resold it to (c) the complaint mustn’t be of a case older than 2 years. Only if all three of the above are fulfilled can one approach the courts if they feel they have faced a deficiency in service.
The second important thing for the consumer to assess would be the value of their claims, based on which they would be able to determine which level of the Consumer Court should they approach. The consumer court system has been divided into 3 levels in order to better distribute the cases. In addition, these levels serve as a system of appeal. They are as follows:
●
District Level Consumer Court – For claims up to 1
crore rupees in value
●
State Level Consumer Court – For claims from 1
crore to 10 crore rupees in value and appeals from the district courts
●
National Level Consumer Court – For claims more
than 10 crores in value and appeals from the state courts
Once the consumer knows which court to address, they have to bring their complaint into the notice of the court. This can be done offline or online. In both cases, first, the consumer has to intimate the seller about the complaint through either personal or legal notice. This is done to exhaust the possibility of the parties resolving the issue among themselves before approaching the courts or to consider other options such as mediation.
Where the parties do not come to a decision to adopt an alternative dispute resolution method, the complaint filing begins. In the offline mode, either the consumer (or any other individual, society or authority on behalf of the consumer) can approach the consumer forums to register their case in-person or they can choose to make a written request. This request must be made to the applicable court address by either of the parties (or any other entity, on their behalf) explaining details such as:
(a)
the nature of the dispute
(b)
the parties involved
(c)
the amount involved
(d)
the remedy being sought
Any documents of purchase/agreements of service need to also be attached. In addition to all documents and details of the dispute itself, the consumer may attach an affidavit to be used in the court proceedings. In the case of an appeal, a month after the case has been decided by the lower court, the same procedure must be accompanied by a certified copy of the order from the lower court.
This letter, along with the other mentioned documents has to be sent to the respective Consumer Court by means of a registered or regular post. Complaints filed must be accompanied by a prescribed fee (that must be made in the form of a demand draft addressed to the forum) which is dependent on the court and the claim being made. Currently, the fee structure is as follows:
|
Cases having a claim of upto 5 lakhs |
No fee |
|
Cases having a claim from 5 lakhs to 10 lakhs |
Rs. 200 |
|
Cases having a claim from 10 lakhs to 20 lakhs |
Rs. 400 |
|
Cases having a claim from 20 lakhs to 50 lakhs |
Rs. 2000 |
|
Cases having a claim from 50 lakhs to 1 crore |
Rs. 4000 |
|
Cases having a claim greater than 1 crore |
Rs. 5000 |
An alternative method that can now be employed by consumers for filing complaints is to file them electronically. To do the same, the consumer can visit the Government of India’s website of the Department of Consumer Affairs, register personal details and then file the grievance form that is available on the website. This simplifies the process greatly and reduces the time taken for complaints to reach the Consumer Court.
For the steps on filing a consumer complaint online, click here.
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Anushka Gupta is a 2nd year law student at National Law University, Delhi. Her interests lie in Psychology, Economics, Philosophy and any other subject that uncovers a hidden side of the world. On most days, you’d find her listening to a podcast or playing the Ukulele. While eager to explore all fields in law, her inclinations are towards Jurisprudence, Corporate Law and Criminal Law at the moment.
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