• The Centre has notified rules for the Consumer Protection (Jurisdiction of the District Commission, the State Commission and the National Commission) Rules, 2021.

• It is to revise pecuniary jurisdiction for entertaining consumer complaints at district, state and national level commissions, a move aimed at fast disposal of cases.

What are the key changes?

• According to the new rules, district commissions will have jurisdiction to entertain complaints up to Rs 50 lakh worth value of goods or services as against the earlier limit of up to Rs 1 crore.

• State commissions will now have jurisdictions for more than Rs 50 lakh and up to Rs 2 crore. Earlier, the limit for them was more than Rs 1 crore and up to Rs 10 crore.

• The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) will now have jurisdiction to entertain consumer complaints where the value of the goods or services exceeds Rs 2 crore as against the earlier limit of over Rs 10 crore.

Why are these revisions made?

• The new rules have been framed under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, which promulgates a three-tier quasi-judicial mechanism for redressal of consumer disputes namely district commissions, state commissions and national commission.

• The Act stipulates the pecuniary jurisdiction of each tier of consumer commission.

• After the Act came into force, it was observed that the existing provisions relating to pecuniary jurisdiction of consumer commissions were leading to cases which could earlier be filed in national commission to be filed in state commissions and cases which could earlier be filed in state commissions to be filed in district commissions.

• This caused a significant increase in the workload of district commissions, leading to a rise in pendency and delay in disposal of cases.

• This defeated the object of securing speedy redressal to consumers as envisaged under the Act.

• The Consumer Protection Act, 2019, stipulates that every complaint shall be disposed of as expeditiously as possible.

E-Daakhil Portal

• The Centre has set up the E-Daakhil Portal, which provides a hassle-free, speedy and inexpensive facility to consumers to conveniently approach the relevant consumer forum, dispensing the need to travel and be physically present to file their grievance.

• The portal has many features like e-Notice, case document download link and VC hearing link, filing written response by the opposite party, filing rejoinder by complainant and alerts via SMS/e-mail.

• Currently, the facility of E-Daakhil is available in 544 consumer commissions, which includes the national commission and consumer commissions in 21 states and 3 UTs.

• So far, more than 10,000 cases have been filed using the E-Daakhil Portal and more than 43,000 users have registered on the portal.

• To provide a faster and amicable mode of settling consumer disputes, the Act also includes a reference of consumer disputes to mediation, with the consent of both parties.

• This will not only save the time and money of the parties involved in litigating the dispute but will also aid in reducing the overall pendency of cases.

Additional read:

The Consumer Protection Act, 2019

The Consumer Protection Act, 2019 was notified on August 9, 2019 and came into force on July 20, 2020. It replaced the Consumer Protection Act, 1986. It aims to protect the rights of consumers by establishing authorities for timely and effective administration and settlement of consumers’ disputes.

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