The Centre on Thursday notified the Consumer Protection (Jurisdiction of the District Commission, the State Commission and the National Commission) Rules, 2021, in which it extended the financial ambit of customer complaints that can be examined by the national, state and district commissions.

Under the new rules, district commissions would be able to look at complaints where the value of goods and services involved does not exceed Rs 50 lakh. The state commissions would be able to look into grievances ranging between Rs 50 lakh and Rs 2 crore, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs said.

The national commission would be able to look at cases with complaints of Rs 2 crore and above.

Earlier, the district commission could only examine complaints, in which the compensation claims did not exceed Rs 20 lakh. Similarly, there was a Rs 1-crore limit on the state commissions. National panels could only take up complaints of over Rs 10 crore.

The earlier provisions on financial jurisdictions had caused cases that fall under the national commission to be filed with the state forums. And the ones that could be filed with the state were being taken to the district commission.

“This caused a significant increase in the workload of district commissions, leading to rise in pendency and delay in disposal of cases, defeating the very object of securing speedy redressal to consumers as envisaged under the Act,” the ministry said in its official release.

The Centre said that it had consulted with states and the Union Territories on the financial jurisdictions before formulating the new law.

Among other new provisions, the Centre has allowed the filing of complaints electronically. Also, to settle the disputes quickly and amicably, the Act provides for mediation with the consent of both parties.

“This will not only save time and money of the parties involved in litigating the dispute, but will also aid in reducing overall pendency of cases,” the ministry said.