Consumer Complaint Toolkit

What is the Consumer Complaint Toolkit?

Under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, a complaint goes to the District, State or National Commission depending on the value of goods or services paid, and under Section 69 must generally be filed within two years of the date the cause of action arose. The toolkit takes the facts, the consideration paid and the key dates, suggests the likely commission and territorial options, flags whether the complaint appears within limitation, and outlines the documents and particulars a complaint should contain.

Who it is for

It is designed for students taking consumer law electives, legal aid clinic volunteers learning to structure grievances, and interns asked to prepare a first outline of a consumer complaint for supervisor review.

Worked example

A clinic client bought a refrigerator for ₹62,000 that failed twice within warranty, and the seller refused replacement fourteen months ago. Enter the price, purchase date, date of refusal and city. The toolkit points to the District Commission, shows the complaint is within the two-year period counted from refusal, and lists the invoice, warranty card, service reports and correspondence as annexures. Because the price is under ₹5 lakh, no filing fee is payable under the 2020 Procedure Rules. You then draft the deficiency and relief paragraphs and confirm the current limits: up to ₹50 lakh for District, ₹50 lakh to ₹2 crore for State, and above ₹2 crore for National Commission under the 2021 Jurisdiction Rules.