One of my clients recently had a case which I am explaining below and if you are stuck in such similar situation, here is what to do.
Note: Due to attorney-client privilege, I cannot disclose complete case details or identify the actual parties involved. However, I am sharing the essential facts and legal approach so that if you find yourself in a similar situation, you can understand the available solutions and legal remedies.
TL;DR: A consumer complaint stuck in scrutiny on e-Jagriti for two months is a delay, not a dead end. Scrutiny is only the office stage before admission, and you can push it forward with a written request, a visit to the filing counter, or a portal grievance. Your two-year limitation period keeps running while you wait, so don't file and forget.
Rohan Bhatia paid ₹6,240 by UPI on 12 March 2026. A jacket and two shirts from an online clothing seller. The seller's replies had a pattern: dispatch happens tomorrow. That line stayed the same for weeks, and then the replies stopped altogether.
By mid-May he filed a complaint with the National Consumer Helpline. The helpline wrote to the seller. The seller apologised and promised dispatch again. Nothing moved. On 18 June 2026 he filed a consumer complaint through e-Jagriti before the District Commission at Pune, and the portal gave him a diary number. The status read "Pending for Scrutiny". It read exactly the same thing in the third week of August. We only have his side of the story here, so treat the sequence accordingly.
He approached the Chamber of Advocate Sudhir Rao in the last week of August 2026. Nothing dramatic followed. A written application to the Commission pointing out that the file had long crossed the scrutiny window, a printout of the diary number carried to the filing counter with the annexures, and a request that the complaint be listed for admission. The complaint was numbered, notice went out, and the seller refunded rather than contest. Advocate Sudhir Rao's experience with how consumer commissions handle scrutiny-stage delays is what got a file moving that had sat still for ten weeks.
The refund reached Bhatia's account on 11 September 2026. The jacket was never delivered.
Key Facts of the Case
- Order placed on 12 March 2026; ₹6,240 paid by UPI to an online clothing seller.
- Goods never delivered, and no refund was issued despite repeated promises of dispatch.
- A complaint to the National Consumer Helpline produced no result.
- Consumer complaint filed on e-Jagriti before the District Commission, Pune, on 18 June 2026; diary number allotted.
- Status remained "Pending for Scrutiny" for over two months.
- Order confirmation, payment record, chat history and the NCH trail were all preserved by the complainant.
- Outcome
- Outcome: the complaint was numbered after the scrutiny-stage delay was raised with the Commission; the seller refunded before the matter was contested.
Why is my consumer complaint stuck in scrutiny on e-Jagriti?
Because scrutiny is an office step, not a judicial one. When you file on e-Jagriti the portal hands you a diary number. That number is the office's receipt, not a case number. The file sits with the Commission's staff, who check the complaint against a list of formal requirements before anything reaches a Bench.
What they check is mundane. Is the complaint in the prescribed format. Has the fee been paid. Are the annexures legible and paginated. Is the correct District Commission named under section 34 of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019. Is the opposite party's address complete enough for a notice to be served. Is the complaint signed and verified.
If one of these is missing, the office may raise a defect and ask you to cure it, or return the file. If none is missing, the file goes up for admission. Either way, "Pending for Scrutiny" means nobody has applied their mind to the merits yet. It does not mean rejected, it does not mean admitted, and it does not mean a hearing date exists.
Section 35 of the Act is what lets you file, including electronically, with the prescribed fee. Section 38 is what happens after admission — a copy is referred to the opposite party so that a version can be filed, and the matter then proceeds. Nothing in that chain has started while the status still reads scrutiny.
What scrutiny is not
- It is not admission. Admission is a judicial act by the Bench.
- It is not a view on the merits. A stolen jacket and a returned jacket look identical at this stage.
- It is not the opposite party's chance to reply. The seller usually does not know the complaint exists.
- It is not a pause on limitation. More on that below.
How long is scrutiny supposed to take
The 2020 Rules deal with scrutiny and with the defects that can be raised at that stage, but there is no hard outer clock on the office in the way there is for the steps after admission. How fast a file moves depends on the pendency of that particular Commission, how many Benches are sitting, and whether the staff have flagged something. Three to six weeks is common in a busy District Commission. Two to three months is not unheard of, and it is also not a signal that something is wrong. That is the honest answer, and anyone who tells you a fixed number of days is guessing.
What to do when the file is not moving
Work through this in order. The first three steps cost you nothing but a morning.
- Read the status carefully. "Pending for Scrutiny", "Defect Raised", "Objection" and "Returned" are four different things. A defect memo is usually visible on the portal, and sometimes it is the whole explanation.
- Check the portal inbox and your registered email and phone. Notices about defects are often sent there and missed. People who complain that nothing happened sometimes find the request for compliance sitting unread.
- Go to the filing counter. A physical visit with the diary number, the payment receipt and a copy of the complaint asked about politely at the counter moves more files than email does.
- File a written application. Address it to the Registrar or the office of the concerned District Commission. One page. Diary number, date of filing, a line that the file has been in scrutiny beyond the usual window, and a request that the complaint be placed before the Bench for admission. Attach proof of filing. Keep a receiving copy.
- Use the portal's grievance route. e-Jagriti has a feedback and grievance option, and the Department of Consumer Affairs and the NIC support desk behind the portal can be written to. This is the slowest of the options and the one most likely to produce a generic reply, so treat it as a backup.
- Curing the defect, if there is one. If the office has asked for something — a fresh copy, a corrected address, a missing annexure — supply it within the time given. Most complaints that die at scrutiny die here, quietly, because nobody responded.
- Withdrawal and refiling, only as a last resort. A fresh complaint restarts everything, and if the two-year period has run out in the meantime you will be asking the Commission to condone the delay. Whether the filing fee comes back is a matter for the Commission. Take this step only after the defect is understood.
The two-year clock does not stop while you wait
Section 69 of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 gives you two years from the date on which the cause of action arose. The proviso lets the Commission condone a delay if you show sufficient cause, but condonation is discretionary. It is not a right.
The clock is not paused by a diary number. In the case described above, the payment was in March and the complaint was filed in June, so ten weeks in scrutiny cost nothing — the margin was wide. For a complainant whose cause of action is already twenty months old, the same ten weeks can decide whether the complaint is heard at all.
When the cause of action actually arises in an online purchase is not always obvious. Is it the date the goods were due, the date the last promise of a refund was broken, or the date you finally gave up? Courts have taken different views depending on the facts, and if your purchase is old, this is the first question to work out before anything else.
What to keep, and what to bring
- Order confirmation and invoice, showing the seller's legal name, not just the brand on the website.
- Payment record — the UPI reference or the bank entry, not a screenshot of the app's success animation.
- Chat and email threads in full. A single screenshot of "dispatch happens tomorrow" is weaker than the whole thread showing it repeated for weeks.
- The National Consumer Helpline complaint and whatever came of it.
- The e-Jagriti diary number, the fee receipt, and the acknowledgement.
- A properly paginated copy of the complaint with an index, so that a defect is easy to answer and not easy to raise.
Where a case like this can go wrong
It is worth saying plainly that not every stuck file has a fight behind it. If the seller is a shell entity with no traceable address, service will fail and an order in your favour may be worth the paper. If the opposite party is a foreign platform with no place of business in India, jurisdiction gets complicated. If you have already accepted a partial refund, what you can still claim narrows. And where a seller has refunded, as in the case described above, there is usually nothing left to argue about the money — the point of pushing the file was to get the matter before a Bench, not to win a contest.
If the amount is small and the seller has already paid up, chasing costs can cost more than it recovers. That is a legitimate reason to stop, and it is better to decide that early than after a year of waiting.
What the Commission can do with the complaint once it is admitted
After admission, the complaint is referred to the opposite party for a version, evidence follows, and the Commission can order a refund, replacement, compensation or costs depending on what is proved. The Act also provides for mediation, which the Commission may take up with the consent of both sides. In practice, a great many online-seller complaints end at the notice stage — the seller refunds rather than engage — which is exactly why getting past scrutiny matters.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does "Pending for Scrutiny" mean my complaint has been rejected?
No. It means the file has not yet reached the Bench. A rejection would be communicated, and there would be an order or a defect memo on the portal. If you see neither, the file is waiting, not dead.
Does filing on e-Jagriti stop the two-year limitation period?
It does not stop it running, but the date of filing is what the Commission looks at. If you filed within two years, you are ordinarily safe. The risk is a complaint returned as defective and refiled after the two years have run — you would then have to apply for condonation of delay, and the Commission may or may not allow it.
Should I just file the complaint again on the portal?
Better not, at least not immediately. Two diary numbers for the same grievance create confusion about which file is live and can get both listed and dismissed. Push the existing file first.
How much does a District Commission complaint cost to file?
The fee is prescribed by the rules and depends on the value of the goods or services. The portal shows the amount before you pay, so there is no guesswork. Appearing through an advocate is not compulsory; a consumer can file and appear on their own.
Is the National Consumer Helpline the same as a consumer commission?
No. The helpline is an administrative grievance channel. It writes to the seller and often gets a response, but it cannot pass a binding order, award compensation, or enforce anything. It is useful as a paper trail, not as a remedy.
If your complaint is sitting in scrutiny right now
Send the diary number, the date you filed, the date of the purchase or payment, and a two-line note on what the status shows, along with a copy of the complaint and any defect memo. That is enough to work out whether the problem is a curable defect, an office delay, or a jurisdiction issue that needs fixing before anything else.
You can write to /contact-us or book a slot at /book. The chamber is at Lawyers' Chamber, Chamber No. 86, Supreme Court of India, New Delhi – 110001. Phone +91 97295 06771, email me@sudhirrao.com. Advocate Sudhir Rao is enrolled with the Bar Council of Delhi and practises in criminal defence, cyber crime and economic offences; Adv. Jyoti Rao (Bar Council of Delhi D/891/2023) handles family and matrimonial matters. Bring the order, its date and the portal printout — the rest follows from those.
This article is general information about Indian law and is not legal advice on your own situation. Every complaint turns on its own facts, and no outcome is promised or implied.
Advocate Sudhir Rao, Supreme Court of India