Fee Structure of all Consumer Courts in India

The consumer courts are divided into three categories depending on the Claim of Compensation Amount by the complainants. You have to select under which court jurisdiction your case should be filed based on that amount. The court fee which is a nominal amount is also based on the total value of the case obtained by adding product or service price and compensation amount claimed by the consumer.

Before reading further you need to have a basic idea on

• What the consumer courts do?
• How to approach one?
• How to register your complaint?

To get this information check out the following link:  How to file a Case in Consumer Court in India?

Consumer Court Fee Structure in India:

You will be required to pay a prescribed fee along with your complaint before the District Forum or State Commission or the National Commission as the case may be. Go through the list below thoroughly to find in which level of court, you can register your case with. The list mentioned below helps you in finding your jurisdiction and the mandatory court fee to be paid for registering the case.

The Fee Payable in the consumer court basing on the total value of goods or services and the compensation claimed is provided below;

District Forum
1. Upto 1 Lakh Rupees – Rs. 100
2. Above 1 Lakh and upto 5 Lakh rupees – Rs. 200
3. Above 5 Lakh and upto 10 Lakh rupees – Rs. 400
4. Above 10 Lakh and upto 20 Lakh rupees – Rs. 500

State Commission
5. Above 20 Lakh and upto 50 Lakh rupees – Rs. 2000
6. Above 50 Lakh and upto 1 Crore rupees – Rs. 4000

National Commission

7. Above 1 Crore Rupees – Rs. 5000

After referring to the above list you can easily identify where your jurisdiction comes under. Next thing to know is the procedure of payment to the consumer court which is duly mentioned below;

Method of payment of court fee:

Another important facet of court fees is the manner in which these are to be paid which too is laid out in Rule 9A of The Consumer Protection Rules, 1987. The Rules provide the following methods of payment:

1. Crossed Demand Draft drawn on a nationalized bank or
2. Crossed Indian Postal Order;

These have to be drawn in favor of the President of the District Forum, Registrar of the State Commission or the Registrar of the National Commission as the case may be, and payable at the respective place where the District Forum, State Commission or the National Commission is situated.

There are certain NGOs who will do your job of preparing the complaints, paying court fee and sending legal notices. But it’s best you do all of the formalities yourself. It totally comes under your personal risk in trusting someone other than the Government officials. No need to pay anything except the fee mentioned in the list above to the concerned forum.

Check out our other articles on solving issues without approaching a court and how to file a consumer case in particular city in India.

Ways and Means of Customer Complaint Escalation