Now no fee to file consumer cases upto Rs 5 lakh

New Delhi: In a major relief to consumers, the government has decided to waive off the fee payable for filing claim compensation complaint in consumer courts against any company for the delivery of substandard products. According to a senior official, now consumers wouldn't have to pay any fee for filing cases of compensation upto Rs 5 lakh, while there would be a nominal fee for filing claim cases of above Rs 5 lakh.

"The decision would benefit all the consumers whether they file their complaints online or offline. As per the existing

practice, the consumers were to pay Rs 500 for registering their cases of the claim of upto Rs 20 lakh at the consumer

courts under the Consumer Protection Act and now it has been waived off till Rs 5 lakh," a senior official said.

"For filing cases of claims of above Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh, consumers would have to pay Rs 200, while for the claims of above Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh, they would have to pay Rs 400 as the fee," the official said, adding that government is also working in the direction to reduce the time taken to resolve consumer cases.

Earlier, the consumers were charged Rs 100 for filing claims of Re 1 to Rs 1 lakh, Rs 200 for filing claims of above Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh, Rs 400 for filing cases of above Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh and Rs 500 for filing claims of above Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh.

Talking about the new Consumer Protection Act, the official said, "We are hopeful the new Act would get passed in the Winter Session as it's pending for a long. The new Act, if passed, would be more consumer-friendly and put a check on manufacturing as well as the delivery of substandard products."

There are about 4.32 lakh cases pending in different consumer courts across the country and out of which about 3.25 lakh cases are pending in states only. There are 76, 000 cases of consumers pending at the district level consumer courts from the last one year.