NCH complaint against your agency: answering the docket
An NCH docket over a client's refund fight is not a court notice, but what your agency writes against it is the record a commission reads later.
Reykjavík · 23:10A National Consumer Helpline complaint against your agency rarely arrives as a legal document. It lands as an email or a call with a docket number attached, and the owner's first question is usually "yeh legal notice hai kya?" It isn't.
NCH is the Department of Consumer Affairs' pre-litigation grievance system. In travel, a docket is usually a refund fight, and Travel & Tourism is NCH's second-largest refund sector after e-commerce, with more than ₹10 crore refunded between 25 April 2025 and 31 July 2026, per DD India's report of Department of Consumer Affairs figures, as of October 2026. Whatever you write against that docket, or don't, is what the client files with next.
What an NCH docket is, and what it cannot do
An NCH docket is a consumer grievance registered on the Department of Consumer Affairs' integrated system, INGRAM, given a tracking number and sent to the business named in it. It cannot order a refund, award compensation, or fine your agency. NCH treats this as pre-litigation: an unsatisfied client is pointed to the Consumer Commission, not told the matter is closed.
Clients file through 1915 (8 am to 8 pm), 1800-11-4000, WhatsApp/SMS to 8800001915, the NCH app, UMANG, or email, in 17 languages. Registering doesn't guarantee a remedy, only a docket number, a stated maximum of 30 days to what NCH calls a logical conclusion, and a status the client can track and screenshot.
How the docket actually reaches a small agency
This depends on whether you've joined NCH's convergence programme: free, voluntary, and already joined by more than 2,000 companies and organisations. Partners get the grievance forwarded in real time to one named SPOC, with a 30-day response expectation.
Non-partners, per NCH's 2020-21 annual report, get an email sent to whatever address NCH finds in the public domain or on the MCA website, with a reply sought within 5 working days and two reminders seven days apart. That timeline isn't republished today, so treat it as past practice, not a current rule. No reply after the reminders, and the docket is disposed with a message naming the next forum the client can approach; where NCH finds no email for the business at all, that message tells the client to write to you and then file with the District Consumer Commission. The same report says partner companies responded to 98% of grievances filed through NCH's Consumer App up to 31 March 2021, against 39% for non-partners.
Control what you can: the email on your website, Google profile, and GST/MCA filings should be one a person actually reads.
Replying isn't mandatory, but silence still costs you
No law forces a reply, and NCH has no penalty power. But silence costs three things. First, the docket closes with the client pointed to the next forum, so you lose the cheapest stage to settle.
Second, that silence becomes part of the client's story. In Kesari Tours Pvt Ltd v V. Dashrathi (Karnataka State Consumer Commission, 22 December 2023), the order records the client's account that his two NCH dockets drew no response and NCH told him to approach the District forum. The client had cancelled a ₹4,83,000 Europe tour in March 2020, as COVID spread. The commission dismissed the operator's appeal against the District Commission's order, called the full-refund demand "just and proper", and refused deductions because the operator produced no documents showing any air, hotel or transport arrangements made before the cancellation.
Third, NCH's 2020-21 annual report lists grievances against a specific travel agency, and flight-refund grievances against online travel agents, among the analyses it sent to the CCPA. Under Sections 19 and 20 of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, the CCPA can open an inquiry on its own motion and, after investigation, order unfair practices discontinued.
One nuance: Section 2(47)(viii) makes it an unfair trade practice to refuse to refund a deficient service within the period stated on the bill or receipt, or 30 days if none is stated. It doesn't make every refund past a 30-day mark unlawful. Check with your lawyer before arguing it either way.
Treat 5 working days as the clock for a substantive first reply, and 30 days as the clock to close the docket. Closing it doesn't stop the client's own clock: under Section 69, they still have two years from the cause of action to file, condonable for sufficient cause.
Write the reply like it is going into evidence
Assume the client can see and screenshot whatever you put on the docket; NCH says action taken is updated against each grievance, and the client can track it. If this escalates, that reply can be annexed to a complaint on e-Jagriti (which replaced e-Daakhil), from either side. The Kesari order is the lesson: deductions were refused for lack of supplier paper, not lack of argument. Where your evidence is a chat thread, electronic records carry their own admissibility rules, so keep the originals, not a screenshot.
The docket reply template
Paste this into the company-portal remarks box if you're a convergence partner, or send it as a reply to NCH's email if you're not, copying the client:
NCH Docket No: [number] | Client: [name] | Booking ref: [ID]
Reply dated: [date]
Status: Contacted complainant on [date] by [phone/email]; offer below.
1. Booking facts: Booked [date]. Paid Rs [amount] on [date(s)].
Confirmed in writing: [itinerary/voucher ref]. Cancellation
request received [date].
2. Since then: Supplier cancellations sent [date]. Amounts
returned/receivable: Rs [amount], expected by [date].
3. Refund computation: [supplier line] paid Rs [x], returned
Rs [y], loss Rs [z] (Annex [n]). [Repeat per line.] Service
fee: Rs [amount] (Annex [n]). Offer: Rs [total].
4. Offer: Rs [amount] by [NEFT/UPI] within [N] working days of
written acceptance. UTR will be shared on this docket.
5. If not accepted: Records and supplier documents attached.
Open to discuss at [number], [hours].
6. Annexures: [numbered list matching above]
7. [Name], [designation] | [phone] | [email]
Lines 1-2 let a commission member, years from now, follow what happened without calling you. Line 3 protects you: every rupee withheld needs a document, not an assertion. Line 7 names a real person so the next reminder doesn't land in a shared inbox.
Send the client this, separately, the same day:
Hi [name], re: NCH docket [number]. We're offering a refund of
Rs [amount], payable by [date], once you confirm acceptance in
writing. Computation attached. Happy to discuss on [number].
No argument, no blame. Attach the booking form, accepted quote, payment receipts, the dated cancellation request, each supplier's cancellation confirmation, and the computation sheet.
The refund arithmetic, worked
Say a couple paid you ₹1,50,000 for a 5-night Dubai package, in full, and cancelled 18 days out for a family reason, not a medical one. Your signed terms carry a 40% slab at 15–30 days out, plus a ₹2,500 per-person non-refundable service fee. The client wants the full ₹1,50,000 back and has an NCH docket open.
| Line | Paid | Supplier returned | Documented loss |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flights, 2 pax | ₹48,000 | ₹41,000 | ₹7,000 |
| Hotel, 5 nights | ₹42,000 | ₹21,000 | ₹21,000 |
| UAE visas, 2 | ₹14,000 | ₹0 | ₹14,000 |
| DMC transfers/tours | ₹26,000 | ₹19,500 | ₹6,500 |
| Your margin | ₹20,000 | n/a | ₹0 |
Your slab refund, ₹1,50,000 minus 40%, is ₹90,000: you'd keep ₹60,000, of which only ₹48,500 is backed by supplier paper. The rest, ₹11,500, is margin with no document behind it, the gap a commission can find. The airline leg is its own chain of credited versus still-receivable, so pin a date to it.
Example: The open offer, refunding everything except documented losses and the service fee, is ₹1,50,000 minus ₹48,500 minus ₹5,000 = ₹96,500: ₹6,500 more than your slab, and every rupee kept is backed by paper or a signed clause. The gap to the client's demand is ₹53,500.
Settle, or stand on the open offer
Close the gap between your open offer and the client's demand with extra goodwill only when that gap is smaller than defending one District Commission case would cost in advocate time and staff days. Say that's roughly ₹30,000; plug in your own figure. If the client counters at ₹1,20,000, the extra ₹23,500 is cheaper than fighting, so settle as full and final, with the goodwill in a separate message labelled without prejudice, the standard protection for a settlement offer under Section 21 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam.
Consumer commissions run a summary procedure, so treat the label as protection for the goodwill figure, not a guarantee the commission ignores it, and keep the ₹96,500 arithmetic in the open reply regardless. If the client holds out for the full amount, stand on the documented ₹96,500.
A docket closed "resolved" doesn't by itself stop the client filing later. A signed full-and-final acceptance is your best defence if they do; the two-year window to file runs either way. The full-and-final wording is worth keeping on file for this moment.
What never to write on a docket
| Phrase | Why it hurts | Write instead |
|---|---|---|
| "Refund processed", no date/UTR | Proves nothing later | Exact amount, date, payment reference |
| "Company policy, no refund" | A refusal with no arithmetic | The computation: paid, returned, loss, offer |
| "The hotel/DMC messed up" | Admits a supplier's failure, sounds evasive | Their own cancellation notice, attached |
Also skip threats and character remarks.
The convergence programme, and when it's worth joining
Joining is free and voluntary, swapping "NCH emails whatever address it finds" for real-time delivery to one named SPOC, still under a 30-day expectation. The registration form asks for a company profile, a CIN if you're registered with the ROC, a "Travel & Tourism" industry option, a company-domain email for your Head of Customer Service, a SPOC email for alerts, and two letterhead uploads: an authorisation letter and a company undertaking. Large OTAs, airlines and several tour operators already sit on the partner list. If you take payment online, also check whether the 2020 E-Commerce Rules touch your site, since as notified they ask e-commerce entities to endeavour, on a best-effort basis, to join.
Join once dockets stop being rare, or once you take payments online regularly; otherwise, email works fine if you check your inbox.
Common questions
Consumer helpline se notice aaya hai, kya yeh legal notice hai?
No. It's an NCH docket, a pre-litigation grievance, not a summons or court order. NCH cannot fine you or order a refund; an unsatisfied client gets pointed to the Consumer Commission next.
NCH complaint ignore kare to kya hoga?
Nothing directly, since NCH has no penalty power. But the docket closes pointing the client to the next forum, your silence becomes part of their story there, and NCH's 2020-21 report shows it has sent travel-agency grievance analyses to the CCPA, which has its own investigative power.
Can NCH force my agency to refund the client?
No. NCH only facilitates and tracks the grievance. On the consumer-law side, a binding order comes from a Consumer Commission after hearing both sides, or from the CCPA after its own investigation.
The client has already filed on e-Jagriti. Should I still answer the docket?
Yes. Whatever you wrote, or didn't, can still be annexed. Answer with the same facts and arithmetic you'd use in a written response to the commission, and read what that stage expects in parallel.
The short version
- An NCH docket is a pre-litigation grievance. It cannot fine, penalise, or order a refund, only point an unhappy client to the Consumer Commission.
- Convergence partners get dockets in real time; non-partners get an email NCH found publicly, historically with a 5-working-day reply window (NCH's 2020-21 report, not a current rule). Either way, 30 days is the clock NCH works toward.
- Write every reply as if a commission will read it later: facts, dates, a refund computation backed by supplier documents, never a bare assertion.
- Your open offer is the price minus documented supplier losses minus any signed service fee. Settle above that only when the gap is cheaper than fighting.
- A docket closed "resolved" doesn't by itself bar a later complaint. A signed full-and-final acceptance is your best defence, and the two-year filing window runs either way.
- Join the free convergence programme once dockets stop being occasional, so a real person gets the alert, not a scraped inbox.
- Confirm current NCH practice with NCH and your refund position with your lawyer.