# SC Says Consumer Case Deadline Starts With Complaint Copy 2026-08-07T05:46:05+00:00 | Governance | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 1 independent outlet The Supreme Court has ruled that the time limit for filing a written statement in a consumer case does not begin unless the notice includes a copy of the complaint. A bench of Justices Sanjay Kumar and Sanjeev Sachdeva set aside a September 2023 NCDRC order that rejected HDFC Bank’s written statement as delayed. The bank said its 2019 notice did not include the complaint and that complete papers arrived only in 2021. The court found that the NCDRC had not checked this fact properly. It directed the commission to accept the written statement and decide the 2014 consumer case on merit, citing the Supreme Court’s 2020 ruling in New India Assurance v Hilli Multipurpose Cold Storage. ## Coverage - deccanherald.com Tags: consumer cases, HDFC Bank, NCDRC, Supreme Court Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/sc-says-consumer-case-deadline-starts-with-complaint-copy/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/sc-says-consumer-case-deadline-starts-with-complaint-copy/#story-in-brief Review state: restored archive article, accurate at time of publication, not offered to search indexes.