Consumer complaint

A civil suit can be filed by the sim card owner in the local/district court within the jurisdiction of which such person resides. The person in question however should make sure to preserve all the correspondence with the company's representatives from the beginning as proof, so as to be able to make their case.

Note, if the company had already specified about the possible deduction from the security amount in their terms and conditions before the purchase, the cause of action could fail/no compensation may be awarded.

The simcard owner needs to file a plaint (i.e. a written complaint) for which I'd advise you to get in touch with a local advocate, so he/she can help them file the plaint properly, i.e. including all the necessary details that need to be mentioned, (for instance, nature of the complaint, court's name, names and locations of the parties to the suit etc.) The plaint needs to be filed along with the requisite court fees.

Either the plaintiff can represent his/her case personally in the court or he/she can use the assitance of the advocate.

Then a date will be given to the plaintiff for the first hearing, upon which the court on hearing them will decide if the case has merit. If it does as per the court, the proceedings will be carried forward and a notice shall be issued to the company (defendant party.) Please note, there will be separate charges required to be paid by the plaintiff for the procedure that follows.

Since a civil suit would prove more expensive than is worth in your case, I'd advise you to file a complaint in the consumer forum. The procedure is more or less the same. Only differences being:

1) You first serve notice to the defaulting company, to see if they themselves are ready to make compensation.

2) If the company doesn't respond, you write a complaint (for which again I shall advise you to consult any local advocate) including the same details as the plaint (in previous case,) along with proof of default on the company's part and a copy of the notice served.

3) You pay the prescribed fees and then mail the documents by post to the consumer forum of your district.

I'd constantly advise you however to please get in touch with a local advocate so you can get through with the proceedings smoothly and the process doesn't prove expensive.

No problem at all! :)

Write to the company ask to attach copy of SEF and TC signed by subscriber, with their reply, with a copy to TRAI.

Majority of the companies have not been handing over the copy and have been providing just a small tear off acknowledgment.

You can also relate with rules available at TRAI website,