Guide to approaching a Consumer Court

Akosha Consumer Guidebooks

399.00

Table of Contents
Introduction Chapter 1: The basics Chapter 2: How to? Chapter 3: The devilish details Chapter 4: A photo tour Chapter 5: The e-commerce problem Chapter 6: Conclusion About Akosha

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About this e-book

We get 1000s of consumer complaints every day. Often a lot of these customers are very angry and want to seek legal help. In several sectors, the behavior of the company leaves them with little choice companies in real estate and insurance sector are notoriously bad at listening to and resolving complaints. This guide is written for such tormented customers so that they can understand what it might practically mean to approach the consumer forum and get their complaint resolved. The actual reality on the ground might be slightly different from that depicted in this e-book please allow for variations.

About this sign Weve included some useful practical tips for you. Even if you are skimming through this e-book, do make it a point to read the information given against this sign.

This guidebook does not constitute legal advice.

Licensed under Creative Commons

This e-book can be shared freely provided it is attributed to Akosha, not used for commercial purposes and shared as it is.

Introduction
Consumer forums are unofficially known as consumer courts. We have used these terms interchangeably.

Consumer courts are, by design, supposed to be the easiest and most accessible courts in the country. The whole idea behind having consumer forums and consumer courts as separate limbs of the otherwise uniform judiciary is to ensure that consumer issues are resolved promptly and efficiently, without being trapped by the backlog of regular cases and complicated procedures. Simplicity in procedure is the biggest USP of consumer courts and consumer forums. However, in the absence of proper information, most aggrieved consumers are wary of approaching the consumer courts. Through this e-book, we shall demystify the working of consumer forums in the country and answer common questions that concern an average consumer when he wants to file a complaint with a consumer forum.

Chapter 1: The basics

This chapter covers some of the basics of approaching the consumer forum. Some aspects might vary from one State to another.

Can I file my complaint with the consumer court?

Anyone who is a consumer can file a complaint with a consumer forum. A consumer is defined by the Consumer Protection Act as anybody who buys goods or avails services with consent of the seller, or the service provider in return of a consideration. Even if someone has paid only a part of the amount for the goods or services, he can still file a complaint against the seller or service provider in a consumer court in case of a deficiency.

What can I do to avoid going to the consumer court?

If you have approached the seller or service provider with a reasonable solution to your complaint, and if such person refuses to resolve your issue, then approaching consumer forums may be a good option. However, before approaching the consumer court, you may want to consider the following options which dont involve intervention of consumer forums or consumer courts: 1. Try to approach the customer care cells of the company via telephone and email, both.

2. Alternatively, you can register your complaint on online forums like Akosha (which escalates your complaint to the company) or tweet about it on Twitter. Several brands are active on online forums and social media and you might get a prompt response with this method.

Dont confuse online complaint forums with the actual real world consumer courts. These forums trick you into believing that you are filing the complaint with a government sanctioned consumer court.

3. If you have a complaint in a sector which has a ombudsman (like banking or insurance) or other authorities (like TRAI for telecom sector), you could first approach such authorities for redressal of the complaint before approaching a consumer forum. It is important to note that different geographical sectors may have different Ombudsmen and hence make sure you are addressing the correct Ombudsman.

The main point is that consumer forums are a consumers last resort , and should be approached after every other source and method of redressal is exhausted.

Chapter 2: How to?

How long will it take for my complaint to get resolved?
The estimate of time for granting relief given by the district consumer courts is generally between six months to 18 months. The time taken for resolution of a complaint can vary a great deal depending on:

the nature of the case, attitude of the companys lawyers, smooth working of the consumer forum (judges have been
appointed etc.),

existing backlog in that consumer court, quality of documentation produced at the time of filing the case
etc.

What happens after I file my complaint with the consumer forum?

Broadly, the lifetime of a consumer complaint while it is being filed and after it is actually filed with a consumer court can be summarized as follows:

Send a notice

You should send a letter to the company informing that if they are unable to resolve your complaint, youd be forced to approach a consumer forum. It is ideal to specify a time limit within which youd like them to settle your grievance (usually 15 days is considered adequate).

Dont threaten or abuse and state what you would like them to do exactly. Everybody loves compensation but be practical in India, no one will any real compensation.

Approach the consumer court

To approach the consumer court, you need to take the following steps: 1. Identify the correct consumer court to approach. 2. Prepare the consumer complaint in the required format (see the checklist of essentials of a consumer complaint below). 3. Get the complaint affidavit notarized through a notary. 4. Make the required number of photocopies after notarizing, that is, 1+3 sets of the entire complaint + Number of sets equal to the number of companies you are complaining against. 5. Prepare a bank draft from a nationalized bank to pay court fee (see the table below for details of court fees).
While all this seems fairly legalistic and scary, dont despair you dont need a lawyer to approach a consumer forum. Hundreds of consumers approach consumer courts themselves or with some assistance from us at Akosha.

6. Submit the complaint and court fee to the receiving clerk in the consumer court who will give you a date for the admission hearing, and a complaint reference number. 7. At the admission hearing, you will be informed whether your case is fit for acceptance or not. If accepted, you will be given a date for the next hearing of your case. 8. The court will send a notice with a copy of your complaint to the opposite party, stating that the opposite party must reply within 30 days, and asking them to attend the hearing. 9. The hearings will continue till the matter is decided. 10. The courts final order will be sent to all the parties by registered post.
It is important to attend the hearings, else the matter may be decided ex-parte, meaning in the absence of the party, which could leave you at a big disadvantage.

What is the court fee?

At the consumer forum, the complainant is required to pay a nominal fee to the court at the time of admission of a complaint. The court fee is fixed according to the value of goods or services which form the core of the dispute and the compensation claimed. The court fee is generally nominal and affordable. Rule 9A of the Consumer Protection Rules, 1987 provides the following table setting out the amount of court fees payable in consumer forums:

Total value of goods or services and the compensation claimed District Forum (1) (2) (3) (4) Up to Rs. 1 lakh Rs. 1 lakh up to Rs. 5 lakhs Above Rs. 5 lakhs up to Rs. 10 lakhs Above Rs. 10 lakhs - up to Rs. 20 lakhs State Commission (5) (6) Above Rs. 20 lakhs - up to Rs. 50 lakhs Above Rs. 50 lakhs - up to Rs. 1 crore National Commission (7) Above Rs. 1 crore

Fee payable

Rs.100 Rs.200 Rs.400 Rs.500

Rs.2000 Rs.4000

Rs.5000

How do I pay the court fee?

You can pay the court fee by way of: 1. a Crossed Demand Draft drawn on a nationalized bank, or 2. a Crossed Indian Postal Order; These should be drawn in favour of the President of the District Forum/Registrar of the State Commission/the Registrar of the National Commission (as the case may be), and should be payable at the place where the District Forum/State Commission/National Commission is situated (depending on where you have filed your complaint).

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The Consumer Protection Rules, 1987 provides for two ways of payment of court fees but the situation in the forums across the country varies in terms of practice.
Different consumer courts might insist on different ways of paying of consumer court fee. It is advisable to call the court and check which method they prefer to avoid repeated trips, delays and frustration.

For example, the Central Delhi District Forum insists that customers pay only using a Postal Order (so if you went in there with a DD, there is a high chance youd be disappointed even though the law gives you the right to pay using a DD). Some courts may even allow the payment of court fees in form of a challan available at the forum or even cash. So, before preparing a draft or postal order, do check on the payments accepted by the consumer forum where you are filing your complaint.

What is the format of a consumer complaint to be filed in a consumer court?

There is no defined or mandatory format for a consumer complaint this is to make it easier for a lay person to file a simple complaint without the (expensive!) assistance of a lawyer. However, there are certain essentials that should be included in a complaint. Below is a checklist of all these essentials that must be taken care of at various stages of filing a complaint:

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Stage Checklist
I DRAFTING OF COMPLAINT

Verify the details of the company such as its legal name,

address, phone no. etc.

Prepare the statement of Dispute/Complaint (this should

contain the facts of the complaint, for example, details of the product/service bought, details of the deficiency, and correspondence with the seller)

The Defect/Deficiency in services should be stated clearly Check whether your complaint is within 2 years from the
date when the cause of action arose, if it is more than 2 years then prepare a statement explaining why the delay should be excused

Check the jurisdiction (pecuniary/original) of the forum

before which the complaint is to be filed (jurisdiction of the forum has been explained below)

Collect copies of Letters/Documents/Communications

between the parties/invoices, and attach these with your complaint

II

DOCUMENTS TO BE ATTACHED ALONG WITH THE PETITION

Copies

of Invoice/delivery challan/letters/documents referred to or relied upon in your complaint

If you have relied on an experts opinion, this should be

attached If you have relied on any technical literature, or referred to any articles etc. in your complaint, these should be attached

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 Check that the Annexures are page numbered Check that an Affidavit by the complainant attested by an
oath commissioner has been attached

Consumer Complaint should be signed by the complainant and supported by a notarised attested affidavit with 1+3 sets + Number of Opposite Parties. (with File cover). While it is true that drafting a complaint is not technical and can be done by a consumer without professional assistance, a professional lawyer or someone on the team at Akosha may be more adept and efficient at drafting such a complaint - this may be a good option if you want to save yourself some hassle and time.
Dont be intimidated by the drafting of consumer complaint. If you dont have the time, seek help.

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Chapter 3: The devilish details

The previous chapter answers some of the basic questions that will arise when you want to file a complaint at a consumer forum. However, there are a few more technical questions that you need to know about.

Where can I file my complaint (the jurisdiction issue)?

Jurisdiction basically refers to the scope of the authority of the courts. The Consumer Protection Act provides for a three tiered system of courts:

National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission

State Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission

District Consumer Dispute Redressal Forum

National Commission is the apex consumer dispute redressal body. The consumers can approach these forums based on:

Territorial Jurisdiction- The consumers can approach the consumer court located in the place where the companys office is or where it carries on business or where the cause of action arose.

Pecuniary Jurisdiction- The consumers have to approach the consumer courts based on the monetary value of their suit which

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usually refers to the amount involved in dispute. This jurisdiction is decided as follows: Where the value of goods or services and the compensation Forum District Forum State Commission National Commission claimed is Upto Rs. 20,00,000 Rs.20,00,000-Rs.1,00,00,000. Exceeds Rs.1,00,00,000

The companys head office is in Mumbai but I live in Delhi! What can I do?
If the company you want to complain against is situated in your city, that would make matters simple you would have to file your complaint at the District Forum under whom the companys office falls. However, a lot of times, this is not true. For example: Anita, a resident of Gurgaon, who wanted to file a complaint against an auto-maker (which is based out of Aurangabad) went at the District Forum in Gurgaon. The people at the District Forum told her that she would not be able to get the complaint admitted in Gurgaon unless one of the opposite parties was in Gurgaon. Therefore, the only practical option left to her was to also name the local Skoda service center in Gurgaon as a party to the complaint and got her complaint admitted in Gurgaon itself.

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What do I do if the company has no branch office or related entity in my city?

Despair not! This is where the second criteria for jurisdiction comes to your rescue: the cause of action. Cause of action simply means the actual event which has lead to you to having a complaint, i.e., which has given you the cause to take legal action (i.e. file a complaint) against the company. Wherever the cause of action wholly or partly arose that areas District Consumer Forum would have valid jurisdiction. For instance, a complainant purchases a flight ticket in Shimla for a journey which is to start from Delhi to another city. In case a complaint arises, the complainant can file a complaint at a consumer forum in Shimla. This is because the ticket was purchased in Shimla and hence, the cause of action arose in Shimla even though the journey was to commence from Delhi. As an easy rule of thumb, the place of occurrence of any of the following shall be considered the place where cause of action arose: (a) where goods are purchased, (b) where goods are supplied, (c) where services are rendered, (d) where the contract was made. The issue of jurisdiction is fairly complicated and in our experience, it is always better to seek expert advice.
Even though the law clearly provides the option for you to file a complaint where the cause of action arose, on a practical level, sometimes district consumer forums refuse to admit the complaint if the companys office is not within their area. You should fight and escalate the matter at the district forum if this happens.
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What if a complaint is against more than one parties?

If you are filing your complaint against more than one person (or company), then you can file this complaint in the forum of the place where ALL the opposite parties (companies) reside, or carry on business, or have a branch office, or personally work for gain. If all the opposite parties do not reside, or carry on business, or have a branch office in the same area, then you can file the complaint where ANY of them reside, or carry on business, or have a branch office, provided you obtain:

permission of the Forum where you intend to file the complaint, or the opposite parties who do not reside or carry on business in the place you intend to file agree to the jurisdiction of this forum.

As we have mentioned earlier, jurisdiction tends to get complicated for more reasons than one and hence enlisting professional help is always a good idea.

Do I need to send a notice to the company before filling a complaint against it?
It is not compulsory to send a notice to the company before filing the complaint with the District Forum. There is no statutory requirement for the same under the Consumer Protection Act. In urgent circumstances, the consumers can directly file a complaint in the Consumer Court. However, as best practice, one should send a notice to the company informing it about the grievance before filing a formal complaint against the company.

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What is the time period within which a complaint can be filed in a consumer forum?
As per the Consumer Protection Act, the District Forum, the State Commission or the National Commission cannot admit a complaint unless it is filed within two years from the date on which the cause of action has arisen. Otherwise, a complaint is barred by limitation and cannot be filed in a consumer forum. However, such a delay can be condoned, if the complainant shows that he had sufficient cause for not filing the complaint within such period. Of course, you should file your complaint as promptly as possible once it becomes clear that all other means of its resolution have been exhausted.

Can I appeal against the decision of the consumer court?

In case a complainant is not satisfied with the verdict delivered by a consumer forum, he or she may file an appeal with the State Commission (if the original verdict was delivered by District Forum) or National Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission (if the complainant is aggrieved by a verdict delivered by a State Commission). The appeal must be filed within 30 days of the receipt of the order. In case a complainant is not satisfied with the verdict of the National Commission, he can approach the Supreme Court for review. In our experience, professional advice becomes mandatory for the consumers, if a complaint advances to the appeal stage and it is better to enlist a lawyer for the same.

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Chapter 4: A photo tour

To get a real flavor of what it is like, we sent an intern out to the K G Marg District Consumer Forum in New Delhi.

To read more, go to: http://info.akosha.com/consumer-complaints/consumer-protection/aday-at-the-k-g-marg-new-delhi-district-consumer-forum/

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Chapter 5: The ecommerce complaints problem

This chapter first appeared as Make consumer law e-com-friendly, The Hindu Business Line, May 7, 2013. Weve included it in this e-book to give you a sense of the challenges you might face if you have a problem against an ecommerce player.

Anita (name changed), who lives in Bengaluru, had ordered a mobile phone from online electronics retailer, Timtara, but it was never delivered despite the full payment being made. She, then, filed a complaint at the local consumer forum in Bengaluru, which, however, refused to admit it. Instead, she was asked to file it in Noida, Uttar Pradesh , where Timtaras registered office is located. Anita had to forego the idea, not only of filing the complaint (there was no way she could have gone to Noida for that), but also recovering the money she had paid to Timtara. The rise and fall of Timtara, culminating in the arrest of its founder and CEO just over a month ago, has opened a can of worms as far as the ecommerce sector is concerned. It has even generated a debate on all what is wrong with this ecosystem. However, amidst all this, there is one major concern that has been overlooked the application of the Consumer Protection Act with respect to e-commerce transactions, especially pertaining to the jurisdiction clause.

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The case illustrated above is just one of the hundreds of complaints against Timtara that were filed with Akosha alone. In all such cases, whenever buyers approached the concerned local consumer forum, they were more often than not told to file their complaint in Noida, which is where Timtaras registered office happened to be loc ated. The story does not differ drastically in cases involving other e-commerce players either. Whenever a consumer faces an issue with an e-commerce company and wishes to file a complaint at a consumer forum, she/he very often ends up confronting this dilemma of jurisdiction: Where to file the complaint?

Virtual Jurisdiction
With e-commerce in India growing annually by over 57 per cent and expected to touch $8.8 billion by 2016 as per projections by Forrester Research Inc, a leading global research and advisory firm one should not be surprised to find the growth rate of complaints also keeping pace. From our own analysis of e-commerce complaints received on the Akosha platform, these are growing by 19 per cent quarter on quarter. Out of the 11,980 complaints received by Akosha for the e-commerce sector in the January-March 2013 quarter, about 58 per cent related to deficiency in delivery, while 29 per cent had to do with refunds, the balance 13 per cent concerning other issues. The bulk of these were registered by consumers in the metros, with Delhi topping the list. However, despite the urban tilt, the geographical distribution of the complaints is diverse enough to validate concerns regarding the misapplication of the jurisdiction clause. The Consumer Protection Act, by itself, is not very ambiguous, though. It clearly lays down that a consumer has to file a complaint in the place where the company resides or carries on business.

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Alternatively, she/he can also file it in the place where the cause of action arose, that is, where the issue or grievance arose. However, cause of action is a complicated legal concept something that is difficult to understand, or simply inconvenient to grapple with, for the consumer forum registrars and judges. In the case of the e-commerce sector, which caters to consumers across the country irrespective of an online retailers geographical location, this becomes hugely problematic. A lot of consumers are told by the relevant registrar or the judges that their complaints cannot be accepted because the companys office does not lie within the said jurisdiction. That is quite similar to the police refusing to register an FIR because it falls outside their jurisdiction. One practical expedient that some consumers use is to make a local branch, service centre or even a warehouse (in the case of an ecommerce company) party to the complaint and, then, get it admitted at the local consumer forum. When the legislature drafted the jurisdiction clause in the Consumer Protection Act, they tried to balance the burden on the companies with that on the consumers. While it would be unaffordable for a company to represent itself everywhere thereby justifying the customer having to file the complaint in the place where it did business the cause of action concept, at the same time, allowed wriggle room for consumers.

It is this wriggle room that is now squeezed by non-application of mind by consumer forums.

Lost Opportunity

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The Consumer Protection Amendment Bill, 2011, which was introduced in the Lok Sabha last December, could have proposed an amendment to Section 11 of the Act that deals with jurisdiction. This would have incorporated a separate jurisdiction clause directed at the e-commerce sector, taking into consideration its unique nonterritorial nature. Such a clause should have clearly laid down that in e-commerce cases, a complaint should be filed where the cause of action arises, irrespective of the physical location of the company concerned. This would have been a perfect, even though overly legislative, redressal of an issue that is already a major problem for Indian consumers making online purchases. Unfortunately, the Bill has already been tabled and referred to the Standing Committee and it looks as though e-commerce consumer hopes have been dashed. Another way out could be to have the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission lay down clear directives in this regard, clarifying that cause of action be given precedence when dealing with jurisdiction issues specific to e-commerce complaints. In the absence of these, Indian e-commerce consumers will have little to look forward to in terms of redressal of their complaints. (The author is founder of www.akosha.com, an online consumer complaints resolution platform).

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Chapter 6: Conclusion
While we have tried to address the basics in as much detail as possible, every consumer complaint is unique and may have issues that need to be addressed individually. However, this guide shall give every consumer a fair idea on how to get started and things that should be kept in mind when planning to file a complaint with a consumer forum.

If you have suggestions on improving this e-book, please write to feedback@akosha.com. If you liked this e-book, please share copiously. If you have a complaint, give us a try just file your complaint on www.akosha.com.

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About Akosha 3,50,000+ Complaints 10,00,000+ Updates 1250+ Daily customers 185+Brands 80+ Team 2010 Founded
Address: E-40/7, Second Floor, Coraza Technologies Private Limited, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase 2, New Delhi - 110020 Landline 011 64643453 www.akosha.com Design by Radhika Dutt All rights reserved. First Edition, September 2013 For the sake of repetition: This book does not constitute legal advice.

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