Why Departments and Regulators Turn to the CCPA for Consumer Complaints | Today’s news
New Delhi: India’s Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) recently received requests from unexpected parties to help resolve consumer complaints, leaving it grappling with jurisdictional questions on how to proceed.
The consumer watchdog has increasingly found itself at the center of complaints involving sectors it does not directly regulate, as government departments, ministries and sector regulators seek its help in dealing with complaints that fall within regulatory jurisdictions, three government officials involved in the process said.
“The Ministry of Consumer Affairs receives complaints from various sectors, such as ticket refunds, problems in vehicles due to adulterated petrol, non-delivery of housing projects on time and nuisance calls, among others. We are therefore referring these complaints to the relevant authorities for redressal,” said the first of the three people mentioned above, all speaking on condition of anonymity.
As cross-ministerial complaints continue to rise, nodal ministries and ministries, including the ministries of finance, petroleum and natural gas, civil aviation, housing and urban affairs, are increasingly turning to the CCPA for help in redressal of consumer complaints, they said.
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An example is India’s capital markets regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), which is asking the CCPA to help it deal with consumer complaints about a wallet-related issue. Because such complaints often involve issues that cross different regulatory jurisdictions and require coordination with the regulator or service provider concerned, the CCPA has been reluctant to expedite such requests, citing concerns about its jurisdiction and the need to follow due process in matters that fall under the purview of sector-specific regulators.
Queries sent to the spokesperson of the Ministry of Consumer Affairs to Sebi and the Ministry of Finance, Petroleum and Natural Gas, Civil Aviation, Housing and Urban Affairs remained unanswered till press time.
Growing complaint burden
As the CCPA is empowered to go beyond the normal handling of complaints and deal with cases through its statutory mechanisms, including consumer protection hearings and proceedings, departments and regulators are increasingly turning to the agency to review such complaints and take appropriate action.
“All such ministries have been asked to deal with these complaints at their level. If they do not resolve them, the CCPA will take up some cases in close coordination with the concerned ministry or department,” said the second official.
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“Sebi has sought CCPA’s assistance in dealing with wallet-related complaints involving securities market intermediaries. The complaints are to be related to issues such as manipulation, withdrawal or return of money stored in wallets or digital balances associated with trading and investment platforms,” a third official said.
“While Sebi regulates stockbrokers and other securities market intermediaries, including the handling and segregation of client funds, the consumer protection aspects of such complaints may require the intervention of the CCPA,” the person said.
Empowered with a broad mandate
Experts said the CCPA’s broad mandate allows it to investigate consumer complaints even in industries governed by specialized regulatory bodies, in coordination with the relevant industry authority.
“The principle is that the specialized regulatory architecture generally takes precedence over the general regulatory framework. The Consumer Protection Act under which the CCPA operates is the general consumer protection law, while different sectors have their own specialized laws, regulators and regulatory frameworks. Therefore, the specialized laws and regulations would usually apply first. If these mechanisms are insufficient to address the said consumer protection framework, a general potential director of a consumer complaint in research A Kulni at Consumer Unity & Trust Society (CUTS) International, an NGO.
“This could explain why the CCPA may take a step back in some cases. However, it may still be useful for the authority to investigate such matters as the scope of the CCPA is quite broad. If it finds that consumers have suffered harm or that specific consumer protection safeguards have not been followed, the CCPA can take cognizance of the matter. It can also refer the matter to the relevant industry regulator, Kulkarni, depending on the reliefs,” Kulkarni said, depending on that.
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Reliance on public grievances with states and Union Territories on the Centre’s Centralized Public Grievance Redressal and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) portal is on the rise. Dependencies at the end of June stood at 216,032, up 26% from December 2025.
According to the latest monthly report for June by the Ministry of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, states and Union Territories received 96,190 public complaints, the highest monthly inflow so far this year, and disposed of 93,170, also the highest monthly disposal in 2026. However, inflows continued to outpace disposals, increasing overall dependency.
