Akash Awana, A Final Year Student (2021) of the Faculty of Law, University of Delhi

INTRODUCTION
The Consumer Protection Act 2019 is the latest statute regarding the protection of rights of Consumers through filing a complaint. Section 2(6) defines a complaint as an allegation in writing, made by a complainant for the relief provided under the Act in cases of unfair trade practices, defects in goods, deficiency in service, excess price of goods and services, selling of hazardous goods. The complainant can also claim product liability against the manufacturer or service provider.
The complaint filed needs to be ensured to be full-proof and rock-solid to sustain the procedural and judicial delays or rejections over silly mistakes and ensure that justice is served. The Consumer must be well informed and verify all the requisite steps to be followed in detail. Therefore, this article focuses more on the necessary elements to be kept in mind while filing such a complaint.

POINTS TO BE KEPT IN MIND WHILE FILING A COMPLAINT
The people are very much aware of the filing of the complaint but they sometimes lack the requisite details of facts or are sometimes unable to submit the necessary affidavit in Favour of their argument to the issue involved which leads to rejection or delay in dispute redressal and finally, the aggrieved consumer leave the case in the lurch, without follow up from the consumer, the case gets dismissed and justice delivery justice is further hampered together with the confidence of the people.
The following key elements are important to be kept in mind by the consumer while filling the complaint against the violation of his rights to take it to a conclusive end:

1. Complete Address of the opposite party must be written in the complaint or the present credentials of such person against whom the complaint is lodged. This helps to inform the opposite party by sending the notice to him. In case the opposite party fails to receive or nobody has the address of the opposite party then a Notice through the Newspaper can be served in the absence of address but it will be difficult to execute the favored decree. You can also add all the parties involved regarding the product viz. manufacturer, Dealer, and seller.
2. Receipt of the Payment of Goods or services is to be kept safe but in case of its non-availability, the secondary pieces of evidence can be considered before the court as proof of trade or transaction like order or delivery assurance on the back of visiting card of the seller or manufacturer.
   Note: There are cases when you are just a user and someone else has bought the product; still, you can claim compensation or necessary relief against such consumer rights violation.
3. Court with territorial Jurisdiction; earlier the case was to be filed only where the opposite party resides but after the enactment of the Consumer Protection Act 2019, the jurisdiction has been changed to any place related to both the parties.
   Pecuniary Jurisdiction of the court has also been raised:
   at District Level: up to 1 crore rupees
   at State Level: 1 crore to 10 crore rupees
   at National Level: beyond 10 crore rupees disputes can be taken into consideration.
4. The limitation period for the filing of the complaint is fixed to 2 years but in case of exceeding this limit, the complainant needs to file an “Application for Condonation of delay” before the court with valid reasons for such delay. It is the discretion of the court to accept or reject that application.
   In case you fail to apply for an application for condonation of delay then the complaint can be rejected at the time of hearing on the argument of the opposite party for exceeding the limitation period. This can be detrimental to the case of the consumer.
   5.Facts of the case need to be drafted well enough in chronological order by yourself or with the help of a lawyer. The facts should be written in one go in the same complaint with all the claims supported by the affidavits of proof. Further addition of the facts in the middle of the hearing is not considered unless the court is satisfied that such addition is necessary to add.

NOW, the opposite, on receiving the notice from the court, submit the written statement before the court.

6. Replication is the stage where the complainant replies to the Written Statement submitted by the opposite party and disproves the facts which are denied by the opposite party by showing necessary documents already submitted.
7. Pieces of evidence are submitted only through the submission of affidavits (verified facts on plain paper signed by an Oath Commissioner).
   Note: There should be a similarity of facts stated in the complaint and the affidavits. The same words can be incorporated from the facts in the complaint. If any new evidence or fact is presented in the affidavit then such fact will not be considered by the court.
8. Attestation of the documents should be done by the Oath commissioner as provided in the Act but in case the Oath Commissioner is absent then the Notary commissioner can do such attestation. any submission of fake evidence is an offense of perjury which may result in imprisonment so avoid such a thing.

Generally, all the exchange of arguments or cross-examinations between the parties is done only through affidavits. Parties can submit an affidavit in the form of questions and the other party can respond in the form of an affidavit. Such exchanges are called interrogatories.

9. The Arguments that need to be taken care of are either verbal or non-verbal. the non-verbal documents regarding the complaint need to be signed and confirmed by the advocate. The consumer at the beginning of filing the complaint can also make sure that citations that may be used in the argument are researched properly. The argument for obtaining the relief should always use that citation of precedents that are similar to your case to justify the claiming of such relief.

CONCLUSION:
The consumer is considered the god for the seller or manufacturer and its welfare is the welfare of the traders by providing good quality products and efficient delivery of services. Any kind of adulteration in goods or inefficient delivery of the services loses the trust of the consumer in the seller and market. The state also must ensure that such trust is maintained by strictly making the trader comply with the Consumer Protection Rules as well as the healthy trade practices. Good quality of goods and services always ensures a flourishing market economy and hence ensures a good quality of Life.