Chandigarh: The digital consumer grievance platform, E-Jagriti, was selected as a winner of the National Awards for e-Governance (NAeG) 2026 for making consumer dispute resolution more accessible, transparent, and technology-driven. However, despite the platform’s recent evolution to include accessibility features for persons with disabilities, multilingual support, and an improved user interface, lawyers and users report that severe operational and technical roadblocks continue to undermine its real-world effectiveness.The most critical concerns focus on systemic processing delays and severe cybersecurity gaps. Advocate Rajavikrant Sharma, who has filed a public interest litigation regarding E-Jagriti before the Punjab and Haryana high court, attributed persistent delays in uploading daily orders and judgments to a staff crunch within the consumer justice system. Furthermore, Sharma warned that uploaded documents lack digital signatures or QR code verifications, meaning they can be easily cloned, manipulated, or forged, potentially exposing citizens to serious threats like digital arrest scams.Operational flaws also compromise the platform’s goal of providing end-to-end digital services. Litigants are frequently forced to physically visit consumer commission offices just to obtain virtual hearing links because video conferencing details are routinely omitted from daily cause lists. Adding to these user grievances, advocate Niharika Varshney pointed out that the platform is plagued by frequent website crashes, maintenance downtime, and technical compatibility issues that prevent users from downloading legal orders via mobile devices.To address these flaws, the legal fraternity has proposed immediate, practical software updates to streamline the litigation workflow. Monika Thatai, an executive member of the Tricity Consumer Court Bar Association, recommended simplifying the filing process by allowing users to upload an entire appeal as a single document rather than forcing separate file uploads. Additionally, advocate Nitin Thatai suggested introducing features for respondents to file memos directly through the portal and download complete paper books online, noting that the current failure to deliver complete copies of complaints to opposite parties directly causes systemic delays.
