If you are having a consumer problem and always talking about lodging a case in consumer court, this article might help you. It is also for the people who always wish to go and lodge a consumer complaint but fail to do so because they don’t know the procedure. What the government is not doing with JAGO GRAHAK JAGO campaign is that spreading the knowledge about consumer protection act-1986, how rules in the act are to be implemented and how common man can stand in the consumer forum.

Before preparing to take your case to the consumer forum one must follow following guidelines and standard procedure because preparation is the key.

1. Notice to opposite party-: Before filing a case a notice to other party is a step to reconcile with them as it will save your time and money before going for a consumer case. It will also gives you what other party anticipated to do and what all evidence they have it would prevent surprises while going for the consumer case. So a notice with 7 or 15 day deadline to reconcile is an ingredient for successful consumer prosecution.

2. If the notice steps fail and you get a very bad response or no response then prepare yourself for the consumer case here are the preparatory steps-:

• Jurisdiction – it means where you need to file the consumer case(you need some intensive research in this), buy some good book on consumer protection which would aid you.
• Claim amount-:set the claim amount which you need from other party, remember to include cost of your time and mental torture.
• Subject matter- Check if your case is a consumer case or not, the test is if you have availed any service, or defective goods only these two subject matters are to be entertained by the consumer court.
• Format of pleading-you need to ensure before drafting the complaint that the format of the complaint is in consonance of court requirements also the court fee should be known before hand, you can pay court fee by IPO or demand draft.
• for more details send query-here

By-:

Nitish Banka

Nitish Banka is an advocate practicing in Supreme Court of India and can be reached at [email protected] or 9891549997