Context: Recently, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution has provided that ‘E-Daakhil portal’ is now operational in 15 States/Union Territories.
Background

• The Consumer Protection Act, 2019 has provision for e-filing of consumer complaints in the Consumer Commissions and online payment of the fees for filing a complaint.
• The E-filing was launched by National Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission (NCDRC) in September 2020.

About E-Daakhil Portal
It is a consumer grievance redressal platform developed by National Informatics Centre (NIC).
It is a digital software for filing consumer complaints with many features such as:

• E-Notice,
• Case document download link & VC hearing link,
• Filing written response by opposite party,
• Fling rejoinder by complainant and alerts via SMS/Email.

The Common Service Centres (CSC) has been integrated with the e-Daakhil portal in order to facilitate the rural consumers for e-filing.

• Delhi was the first UT to implement it followed by Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Chandigarh, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Karnataka and Haryana.

Significance of E-Daakhil Portal

• It empowers the consumer and their advocates to file the consumer complaints along with payment of requisite fees online from anywhere for the redressal of their complaints.
• It facilitates the consumer commissions to scrutinize the complaints online to accept, reject or forward the complaint to the concerned commission for further processing.

Additional Information
National Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission (NCDRC)

• It is a quasi-judicial commission in India which was set up in 1988 under the Consumer Protection Act of 1986.
• It is headed by a sitting or retired judge of the Supreme Court of India.
• It shall have jurisdiction to entertain a complaint valued more than one crore.
• It shall also have Appellate and Revisional jurisdiction from the orders of State Commissions or the District fora as the case may be.