You and I are consumers at some point of the day, be it for groceries, gadgets, clothing, etc. Now, picture this – you bought a pair of shoes worth Rs 5000 from an e-commerce portal. You had been saving for it for a few months, and when delivered, it was not at all what you expected, since the quality of shoes was not even worth Rs 500. When you sought to return it, nobody was ready to assist you. They kept telling that you received the same product that you ordered and there will be no returns, no refund. So, what is the option left for keeping up with your Consumer Rights? A complaint….Right? Because taking legal action against the wrongdoers is your duty as a consumer. But now, the question arises, can you do it yourself? How to file a case in Consumer Court? Since people mention you can do it without going anywhere, how to file a consumer complaint online? Find all the answers below.
How to File a Case in Consumer Court in India?
Here is a step-by-step guide for filing a consumer complaint in the relevant Forum.
Step 1 – Legal Notice
The first step before initiating any legal action against a person is to intimate them through a Legal Notice. The said notice reflects the grievance caused due to the goods or services against which filing of a consumer complaint is sought. The reason for such action – defective goods / deficiency in service / unfair trade practice, needs to be specified and the compensation for settlement of the matter should also be mentioned in the legal notice by aggrieved consumers.
Step 2 – Draft Consumer Complaint
After sending a legal notice, it is advised to draft a consumer complaint on behalf of the aggrieved party under the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019. The said draft contains the details of the complainant as well as the opposite parties, details of the cause of action, relevant facts, relief or remedy sought, and concluded by signature and verification of the complainant.
Step 3 – Relevant Documents
Like any legal recourse, a consumer complaint also needs to be backed with relevant documents, be it the receipts, delivery details, packaging, guarantee/warranty certificates, legal notice sent to the opposite party, etc.
Step 4 – Consumer Forum
There is hierarchical distribution of Consumer Cases at the District, State and National Level. Thus, based on the pecuniary jurisdiction, which is estimated based on total value of goods and services in question and the compensation sought leads to decide which Commission deals with the matter.
Step 5 – Court Fees
To file a case in Consumer Court, you need to pay the requisite Court fee which depends upon the value of goods and amount of compensation sought. Calculation of prescribed Court fee plays a crucial role and needs to be done carefully to avoid rejection for technical reasons.
Step 6 – Affidavits
The person seeking to file a case in Consumer Court in India has to submit an affidavit. The said affidavit states about the facts and statements in the consumer complaint to be true to his/her knowledge.
How to file a Consumer Complaint Online on E-Jagriti Portal?
To bring ease for consumers, the provision for online consumer complaints was initiated with the launch of E-Daakhil Portal by the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission in 2020. As per report, by the end of 2023, it covered 35 States and UTs except Ladakh, and entered Ladakh in December 2024. The E-Daakhil Portal is relabelled as E-Jagriti Portal. You need access to E Jagriti login to start with consumer complaint online. Given below are the steps to be followed for filing consumer complaints online.
- Visit the Official Website at e-jagriti.gov.in.
- The home page of E Jagriti portal will look like the image here. Click on the Login/Sign Up button as highlighted on the top right corner.
- The next page requires the user to enter login details. If you are already registered, you may proceed to E Jagriti login with Registered Mobile Number and Password/OTP and continue. If you are not registered on the Portal for Consumer Complaints, i.e., E-Jagriti Portal, you may click on the Register Button on top at the middle of the screen as shown in the image below.
- For fresh registration at ejagriti . gov.in , you will have to enter your Mobile Number, email address and full name. Then, you will get a One Time Password (OTP) on your mobile number as well as the email entered during registration.
- After entering the OTP, you will be required to create a password. You will also have to select your role for the purpose of Online Consumer Complaint.
To be specific, the role could be a consumer himself/herself, an authorised representative of a consumer, a company, or an advocate, as the case may be.
- After continuing, you will be required to enter certain personal information after E-Jagriti login. Your name and mobile number, email address and role, since already entered, will appear auto-filled.
- The next step requires you to provide your address – Business/Permanent/Present Address, as the case may be. You need to enter your address specific to house no., street, landmark, PIN Code. After entering the PIN Code, State will be automatically selected and you will get the drop-down options of district, Post Office and Police Station. Here, some details are mandatory which are starred, and others may be skipped. While entering the address information, please be careful, since this will be used for any further communication in furtherance of Consumer Court proceedings.
- At last, you will have to upload documents to identify yourself. Here, you may use one of the Government issued identity proofs such as Aadhar Card, Driver’s License, Passport, etc. After selecting the ID option, you need to enter ID number and also upload ID proof in PDF format only. The size of the file also needs to be within 10 MB. This is the last step for User Registration at the Online Consumer Complaints Portal – E-Jagriti.
- After completion of registration, you will be logged out of the portal. You will be required to login at the portal with your registered Mobile Number and password. You will be directed to your dashboard which looks like the image below. On the left pane, you will find the option to “File New Case”. Click on It. If you have an ongoing case, or draft complaint, etc., all such information reflects on the dashboard only.
- After clicking on the ‘File New Case’ option, you will be taken to another page where you will have to select the case type. If it is a totally fresh case, you have to select the option of “Consumer Complaint”. Other options include Transfer Application, First Appeal, Interlocutory Application, etc.
- After selecting Consumer Complaint, you will see a list of documents which you will be required to submit for making an online consumer complaint. It includes an Index, Proforma, Memo of Parties, Synopsis of Dates and Events, Vakalatnama, etc.
- Now, the filing process starts for Consumer Complaint Online. You need to provide the amount of consideration paid and the amount claimed in furtherance of Consumer Complaint. You also need to select the date, State and district of cause of action. This is for the purpose of deciding the jurisdiction of the matter. This is followed by selecting the suitable Case Category and SUb-Category based on the factual details. Case Category such as Agency Services, defective goods, FMCG, Life Insurance, etc. In the sub category, you have to select options in more specificity. For example, for Banking’ category, the sub category includes ATM/Debit Card, E-Wallet, Loans, etc.
It may be noted that the amount involved here is the base for deciding the Court fee and also the Jurisdiction, whether it would be District Consumer Forum, State or National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, as the case may be.
- The next step requires to enter details of yourself, the complainant, and the details of the Opposite Party. You also need to add Advocate Details which are mandatory to proceed further, as reflected in red boxes in the image below.
- Since there could be more than one complainants in a particular matter, the portal gives option to provide details of additional complainant.
- Since there could be more than one Opposite Parties against which legal recourse is sought in the form of Consumer Complaint, there is an option to select Additional Opposite Parties.
- The next and last step requires uploading of relevant documents, whose list was shared at the very beginning of filing Consumer Complaint Process. Here, images of all the documents need to be uploaded in PDF format. Apart from those specified, there is option to add additional documents as well.
After uploading all the relevant documents for Online Consumer Court Complaint at E-Jagriti Portal, you have to do the final submission and Check Out.
