Consumer court complaint format and How to file a consumer case in India will be discussed in this post. This post content is updated with the new law Consumer Protection Act, 2019. I believe you have joined our Facebook Free Legal Aid forum or purchased a book, and you have been advised to visit this page to get a Consumer court complaint format and How to file a consumer case in India. If you have not joined our NGO Free Legal Aid Forum, Please join us Here, and post your complaint. Free Legal Aid is recommended for non-serious complaints and complaints up to INR 5000. While serious complaint guides are free but having an expert team, NGO and legal professionals will make your cause and case strong. Further, it is essential to have a strong team, as often serious cases go beyond the district forum, up to the supreme court. Having NGO ensures you save time, hassle and huge costs plus protect yourself from harassment and false threats. That is the core objective of our project: Project Karnav

If you have a Non-Profit Donation plan and referred here, do not worry, you are well supported by the team of experts including monitoring from panel lawyer. You can avoid the format section, as the same is well managed by your support team. This post will boost confidence in you, and prepare for direct representation, while all drafting, monitoring, campaign, and assistance at all stage as per the donation plan will be administered, managed by NGOs, Lawyer and Legal Social Workers. You will also receive strategic, confidential support, and much more advanced assistance which is beyond the scope of this article. 

In this article, I will provide you with key Instructions, recommendations, and suggestions to prepare your consumer court complaint petition. I will also recommend one eBook on how you can contest, file, and fight your consumer case without a lawyer. I will discuss important changes to keep in mind that came after the new Consumer Protection Act,2019 which replaced/repealed the old law Consumer Protection Act, 1986.

If you have not sent a legal notice to the opposite party yet, first you are required to send a legal notice to the opposite party, as a first step. Please, follow this article post, Consumer Court Legal Notice Format, Draft Legal Notice For Consumer Case.

Instruction

• Print/photocopy consumer notice that you have sent to the opposite party.
• Print/photocopy Courier/post receipt of consumer legal notice you have sent to the opposite party.
• Print/photocopy post/courier tracking receipt showing the notice has been delivered/notice status.
• Print/photocopy the receipt/invoice of the disputed amount.
• Print/photocopy payment proof such as Bank Statement.
• Print/photocopy ID/Transaction number. of UPI, Google Pay, Paytm, NEFT, IMPS, etc.
• Make a transcript of important call recordings providing that the opposite party is liable under deficient service, unethical trade practice, threatening, etc also backup recording in PAN drive, and backup it on Google Drive or other cloud storage. keep the original recording source intact. If possible, change your mobile to ensure you do not lose recordings. (Never share this evidence with the opposite party ever, except if the consumer commission demands such to prove)
• Print/photocopy WhatsApp chats (only important chats)
• Print/photocopy email communication with a header. (i.e. showing date, sender, receiver, and time of email)
• Print/photocopy other documents such as Photograph, screenshots, and supporting documents
• Combine all the above documents, and give each a name as Annexure – 1, Annexure – 2, etc… Each document should have an annexure number so when you refer to it in your main consumer complaint petition, it is easy for commission president/judges and parties to quickly find underlying point and corresponding documents. Your job is to make your complaint easy to present, and understand, and eliminate complications.
• If your friend/relative is appearing before the commission, you need to sign an authorization letter. Do not worry, you will find the same in the format I provide below. Obtain the Aadhar Card ID of the person appearing on your behalf.
• Keep your ID like Aadhar Card, in case required.

Advice

• Do not play all your cards without knowing whether it will go in your favor or against you. No matter what, while presenting your case, do not get emotional. Do not ever get provoked. You can always respond to worse things effectively in writing appropriately. in the end, matter and record are appreciated. Your weakness may be used against you in the commission by the opposite party in a rare event. So control is important.
• Stick to the facts. Stick to those facts that you can prove, and have reasonable evidence. Not all allegations have to be proved, but those that are not easy to understand or create confusion may be required to prove. for example, You need to prove that you bought a product from the opposite party. you can prove the same with the invoice, receipt, and bank statement. These are evidence. If the opposite party has behaved inappropriately, you may need to prove his presence at your place either physical or digital. communication documents prove the intensity and relativity of your allegation. For example, recovery agents from banks practice unlawful recovery methods, such as coming to the premises without consent, using abusive words, threat on the phone. using mobile video recording, witness, and phone call records, are enough to prove unlawful recoveries. RBI set norms of recovery, which have to be followed by recovery agents. When those are broken, you may need to read the guidelines first which is set by RBI in order to understand how it has been broken. In your case, if you wish to need a relative source, let us know in the free legal aid forum.
• Patience is the key. When things don’t turn out our way, we often blame the system. However, the court, commission, lawyer, opposite party (brands, companies, service providers), and complainant are the parties of this system. We are a consumer who drives these systems, and consumer laws are made to protect us. At the same time, it is not made to abuse any business. Set your goals realistic. Consumer complaints are filed to fix your issues and seek reasonable costs against damage, and in serious cases, compensation. But that all comes in the fair range. If something does not go in your favor, you should refrain from blaming anyone. We, consumer, hates abuse, and we should not respond in the same manner. As long as you are professional, focused, paying attention to the facts of your case, and optimistic, you have already won half the case.
• Never share your evidence at the notice stage, or not even with the petition. First of all, you want the Consumer Commission (Earlier it used to be called Consumer Forum, it is also unofficially called Consumer Court) to admit your case, i.e. court reasonably believes your facts are true and they should take your case for hearing. Once the case, is admitted, they will send notice and your petition copy to the opposite party. Then, the opposite party will appear in his reply. Once, he submits his replies, he is likely to open up his stand, evidence, and view. This way, you can play your cards better. isn’t it? If you know the legal strategy of the opposite party, you can prepare your arsenal, and use it appropriately. At this stage, if the opposite party accepts something, you need not prove it. If the opposite party denies something, you can then add your evidence in writing.
• Under the new Consumer Protection Act, of 2019, the Consumer Commission may now refer your case for mediation. That means, the opposite party and you will have an opportunity to discuss issues and come out with an amicable solution. This saves time, costs, and hassles. Be reasonable, fair, and realistic with a solution. Your goal is not to hang the opposite party or beg them to do something, but your aim is to secure your rights and fix your issues. And, in the long run, you will feel happy and satisfied, that you resolved the issue without causing pain to anyone. And, the opposite party will appreciate your attitude. And, this will also set a good example.

Consumer Court Complaint Format 

(Assume Court, Commission, and Forum are the same words for an understanding purpose)

Click on the Consumer Court Complaint Format to download the Word file for the consumer petition. Read additional instructions in the Word file, before you edit the document. Read each paragraph carefully, remove explanations and examples, and add your points, as per your case. You can also direct message us on the Facebook forum if you wish us to review.

Steps to Follow for Filing Consumer Commission Complaint

After you prepare a petition and other documents as explained above, the following will be the procedure to file your case before the Consumer Commission.

• If for any reason, the commission refuses to accept your complaint, here is a trick. You will need to approach a Notary and notarize your document. The Notary who, unless known to you, will require you to show proof of identification such as your driver’s license, PAN card, passport, ration card or election or Aadhaar ID. You will then need to sign the complaint and the affidavit in front of the Notary after which he/she will notarize the document with his/her Notary seal and signature. Notarization is a process by which the consumer court can ascertain that you are the person you claim you are and that you have actually signed the complaint. (max. 100 rupees should be charged by a notary person and you can find a notary around the court in your city). Feel free to ask a question if you need help. (Keep in mind, no more than 100Rs. for notary). For the National Commission in Delhi, Contact Details are here:
• You will then be required to make a specific number of copies of the complaint petition with annexures (After notary or if you don’t opt for notary then after the event of document verification and sign.) In most cases, you will need to make 1 copy for yourself + 1 copy each for all opposite parties + 3 copies for consumer commission, Keep one extra copy in case require to above.
• Consumer commission is known to be consumer-friendly. You need to visit this court and meet a receiving clerk who will then accept your complaint and guide your further steps. Find the District Commission in your district here. Find the State Commission in your State here. Upbhokta Nyay Bhawan, ‘F’ Block, GPO Complex, INA, New Delhi- 110 023 PBX No: 011-24608801, 24608802 Fax No: 011-24651505, 24658505 Email: ncdrc@nic.in.
• The next action is preparing the court fee payment. Most courts accept Demand Drafts (DD) through a Nationalized Bank duly crossed, drawn in favor of the commission. You need to pay fees in favor of the President, District/State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, (district/State name) to admit the case. These are government and legal fees. Some courts/commissions may prefer to accept fees through cash or postal order due to their easy access and the same can be verified by a consumer on a phone with a forum. Despite we verify personally on the call with the forum whenever possible, it is advisable for you to double-check. The fee Table is below, For more information regarding court fees related to law, visit here.

• The last and most tedious action in this step is to go to the commission/court, locate the receiving clerk, deposit your complaint file, and make the court fee payment. Be sure to obtain a receipt of the payment. At this time, the clerk will also give the date a judge will first hear your case (admission hearing) and a complaint reference number. if the court does not admit your case in 21 days, under the new law, it will be automatically admitted.
• The court will then send the complaint to the company (all opposite parties) and ask them to respond to the complaint within 30 days and also to attend the admission hearing.
• The hearing goes on until final judgment/order. During each hearing, if you are being asked a question and you are not sure about the answer then ask for the next date and notify us about the same so we will help you with the written draft. (As a donation plan, beneficiaries receive full drafting, strategic, follow-up, tracking, and much more advanced support from dedicated legal and NGO teams)
• Please note some commission/forum/court has a customized format, for example, they ask for additional affidavits, and additional submission, and in the same matter, they may show you the format. Generally, such formats are hung on a wall and you need to take a photo of it. Send that photo to us so we can prepare the same document and email it to you as soon as possible. As we said earlier, there is no prescribed format but it is for the easy process of your case, A local court may have a different process and it is good to co-operate with them.
• Do not get too friendly or don’t be dependable on-court staff as if the opposite party presents with a strong lawyer, you cannot deny possibilities of prejudice and if you require being aggressive in the future, by any chance, you should be able to do the same, without shy feeling.
• Read the notice and complaint related to your case and the content supporting it as you may need to explain orally and retain documents date-wise and record court receipts too.
• We will take other actions under the non-profit donation plan from time to time after the admission of a case as required.
• Please note Free Legal aid is limited to the forum, and advance support is not available due to limited funding, and limitations of lawyers, field social workers, and mediators. Reply to the notice, reply to reply, evidence collection, all-time negotiation with the brand, drafting additional complaints, compensation, costs on opposite parties, appeals require donation plan whereas you donate to support your cause, so expenses of cases are met. We are a non-profit organization, being monitored and audited checked by the government. You can check out more about the donation plan here.

eBook

You can buy the eBook: File Consumer Complaint without Lawyer: A Solid Guide to Contest, Resolve & Win Your Consumer Court Case like a Pro in India. 

The purpose of this eBook is to enable readers to file complaints before the court/forum or resolve them without approaching the court in a strategic way on their own without expert help and open up tricks and tips which are even rarely used or known to the most senior lawyer. This book is for those consumers and people who want to fight consumer cases and complaints from scratch. It is also useful for everyone to resolve a complaint that they face on a daily basis from brands and service providers. This saves huge legal costs, and helps save time and fix issues appropriately.