Who to contact when something goes wrong
Half the difficulty of dealing with an Indian institution is working out which one it is. Income tax is central; land, police and electricity are state. Consumer protection runs through a helpline, a commission and a sector regulator at the same time. This page maps the problem to the body that can actually do something about it — and says plainly what each one cannot do.
Short answer
For anything life-threatening, call 112. For money lost to online fraud, call 1930 within the hour. For Aadhaar, 1947. For a consumer dispute, 1915. For a bank or NBFC, complain to the institution first, then the RBI Ombudsman on 14448. For free legal aid, NALSA on 15100.
The order that works
Step 1
Go to the company or department first
Almost every ombudsman and commission will ask whether you tried, and several require it. Put it in writing, keep the docket or complaint number, and set a deadline. For banks and NBFCs this also starts the 30-day clock that makes an RBI Ombudsman complaint admissible.
Step 2
Escalate to the regulator, ombudsman or helpline
The RBI Ombudsman, Insurance Ombudsman, SEBI SCORES, TRAI's appellate route and the National Consumer Helpline on 1915 all cost nothing and carry weight a customer email does not. CPGRAMS covers every central department.
Step 3
Then the consumer commission, or an RTI
A consumer case can be filed online through e-daakhil at district, state or national level without a lawyer. Where the problem is a government department sitting on a file, a ₹10 RTI asking for the file's status is frequently faster than another complaint.
Emergency and urgent help
If life is in immediate danger, none of the rest of this page matters. 112 is the single emergency number across India and works from any mobile, including one with no balance or no SIM.
Police, fire, ambulance and disaster response, in one number across every state and union territory. Works without balance; also available as the 112 India app and by pressing the power button three times on most phones.
24/7
Financial cyber fraud. Call within the golden hour — the first 60 minutes — so the transaction can be flagged and the money held before it leaves the chain of accounts.
24/7
Medical emergency ambulance service in most states, free at the point of use. 112 will also route an ambulance.
24/7
Free, confidential mental health support in multiple languages, run by the Ministry of Health.
24/7
Support for women facing violence, harassment or distress, including shelter and police assistance. 1098 is the equivalent for children.
24/7
Emergency assistance for children in distress, abuse, or in need of care and protection.
24/7
Aadhaar, PAN and identity documents
The documents everything else depends on. Almost all of these can now be done online — and almost all of them are sold by agents who charge many times the statutory fee for exactly that.
Enrolment, address and mobile updates, biometric locking, Aadhaar authentication history and complaints. myAadhaar is the self-service portal.
Mon–Sat, IVRS 24/7
PAN application, correction, reprint and Aadhaar-PAN linking. Issued through NSDL/Protean and UTIITSL on the department's behalf.
Fresh passports, renewals, police verification status, appointment booking and Passport Seva Kendra locations.
Government-issued digital documents with the same legal validity as originals — driving licence, RC, PAN, marksheets, insurance.
Voter registration, EPIC corrections, checking your name on the roll and finding your polling station. Voters' Helpline app and NVSP portal.
A single app front-end to hundreds of central and state services — EPFO, PAN, gas booking, Ayushman Bharat, digital certificates.
Tax, banking and money
Income tax is a Union subject, so the rules are the same everywhere. Banking disputes have a free, binding ombudsman most people never use.
ITR filing, Form 26AS and AIS, refund status, e-verification, grievances and responding to notices.
Free, binding resolution of complaints against banks, NBFCs and payment system operators — after 30 days with no satisfactory reply from the institution.
Provident fund balance, UAN activation and KYC, online claims for withdrawal, advance and transfer, and pension (EPS) queries.
Complaints about listed companies, brokers, mutual funds and depositories, with tracked resolution and an appellate route.
GST registration, returns, e-way bills and the grievance redressal portal for taxpayers.
Raise a UPI transaction dispute where the app and bank have not resolved it. Start with your payment app, then your bank, then here.
One free credit report a year from each of the four bureaus — CIBIL, Experian, Equifax and CRIF High Mark — and free dispute of errors, mandated by the RBI.
Consumer complaints
The Consumer Protection Act 2019 gave India a genuinely usable system: a national helpline, online case filing, and district commissions where you can appear without a lawyer.
The first stop for any consumer dispute — goods, services, e-commerce, telecom, banking, travel. Mediates with over a thousand registered companies.
Mon–Sat, 8am–8pm
File a consumer case online at district, state or national level without visiting the commission. No lawyer required.
Telecom and DTH rules, tariff orders, and the complaint escalation path. Complaints start with the operator's appellate authority.
Complaints against insurers on claims, mis-selling and policy servicing, and the Insurance Ombudsman for binding awards.
The Centre's public grievance portal, covering every central ministry and department, with tracked status and an appeal stage.
Overcharging above MRP, short weight, and packaging declarations. Enforced by state legal metrology departments.
Work and employment
Labour is a concurrent subject, so central Acts set the floor and states run the enforcement machinery — including the labour commissioner you will actually deal with.
Central labour law, the Shram Suvidha portal for compliance, and the directory of state labour departments.
Employees' State Insurance — medical care, sickness, maternity and disability benefits for covered employees, and the ESIC dispensary network.
Unpaid wages, unlawful deductions, gratuity, and disputes under the Shops and Establishments Act. This is the office that actually adjudicates most complaints.
Central portal for complaints under the POSH Act, routed to the relevant Internal Committee or Local Committee.
Government employment exchange, job matching, career counselling and skill training listings.
Police, courts and rights
A police station cannot refuse to register an FIR for a cognisable offence, and cannot refuse on grounds of jurisdiction — that is what a zero FIR is for.
Report financial fraud, online harassment, and crimes against women and children. Financial fraud should also be phoned to 1930 immediately.
24/7
Complaints about violation of human rights by public servants, including custodial abuse and police inaction.
File a Right to Information request to any central public authority for ₹10, and the first appeal if the reply is late or evasive. States have their own portals.
Free legal representation for those who qualify — including all women, children, SC/ST members and people below the income limit — through District Legal Services Authorities.
Case status, cause lists, orders and judgments for district courts and High Courts across India.
Where a police station refuses to register an FIR or acts improperly, the SP, the State Human Rights Commission and the Police Complaints Authority are the escalation route.
Driving, vehicles and transport
Motor vehicle law is central, administration is by state RTOs — and nearly every RTO service is now available on Parivahan without visiting the office.
Learner's licence, driving licence, RC transfer, address change, duplicate documents, and vehicle-related services in every state.
Check and pay traffic challans nationwide, and contest a challan issued in error.
Highway toll tag issuance, blacklisting problems, excess deduction complaints and the NHAI helpline.
Train booking, cancellation and refunds, plus RailMadad for complaints about trains, stations and catering.
Health and insurance
Public health is a state subject, which is why hospital systems differ so much — but the largest health assurance scheme is national.
Cashless hospital cover for eligible families, eligibility check, empanelled hospital list and grievance redressal.
Digital health ID linking records across providers under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission.
Free, binding resolution of insurance claim disputes up to the prescribed limit, after the insurer's own grievance process.
Central Government Health Scheme — for serving and retired central government employees and their dependants.
State-run hospitals, primary health centres, immunisation and maternal health programmes.
Schemes, welfare and utilities
Central schemes are delivered through state machinery and paid by direct benefit transfer into an Aadhaar-linked account — which is why so many failures are actually seeding or KYC failures.
Find central and state schemes you are eligible for by answering a few questions, rather than reading hundreds of scheme pages.
Public Distribution System entitlements, One Nation One Ration Card portability, and the state food department that issues cards.
Track whether a direct benefit transfer has actually been released and where it failed.
New connections, name transfer, meter disputes, bill corrections and outage complaints — plus the State Electricity Regulatory Commission above it.
Piped gas and LPG regulation and complaints; individual LPG issues go to the oil marketing company first.
Sources & provenance
Facts verified
- 1.112 India — Emergency Response Support System OfficialMinistry of Home AffairsUsed for: Single emergency number across India
- 2.National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal OfficialMinistry of Home AffairsUsed for: 1930 helpline and online reporting
- 3.UIDAI OfficialUnique Identification Authority of IndiaUsed for: Aadhaar services and the 1947 helpline
- 4.Income Tax Department OfficialGovernment of IndiaUsed for: PAN and e-filing services
- 5.Reserve Bank — Complaint Management System RegulatorReserve Bank of IndiaUsed for: Ombudsman scheme and the 14448 helpline
- 6.EPFO OfficialEmployees' Provident Fund OrganisationUsed for: PF and pension services
- 7.National Consumer Helpline OfficialDepartment of Consumer AffairsUsed for: 1915 helpline and company mediation
- 8.e-daakhil OfficialNational Consumer Disputes Redressal CommissionUsed for: Online consumer case filing
- 9.Parivahan Sewa OfficialMinistry of Road Transport and HighwaysUsed for: Licence and vehicle services
- 10.NALSA OfficialNational Legal Services AuthorityUsed for: Free legal aid eligibility and the 15100 helpline
- 11.RTI Online OfficialDepartment of Personnel and TrainingUsed for: Central RTI filing and first appeal
- 12.Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY OfficialNational Health AuthorityUsed for: Eligibility, hospitals and the 14555 helpline
- 13.myScheme OfficialNational e-Governance DivisionUsed for: Eligibility-based scheme discovery
Not a source — AI-assisted analysis on this page
- AI-assisted analysis — grouping and 'who owns this problem' — The grouping of these bodies by problem rather than by ministry, and the notes on which body to approach first and in what order, are our analysis. Government directories list departments alphabetically or by ministry; the routing advice here is ours.
Phone numbers and scope descriptions on this page come from each agency's own contact page, listed above. Numbers change occasionally and hours change often; the link beside each entry goes to the page that publishes the current details. Many services differ by state — state attorneys general, labor departments, small claims limits and legal aid programs all vary. The escalation order — company, then regulator, then court — is our own framing of how these bodies interact, not a procedure any single agency publishes.
Facts on this page are taken from the sources listed above — Government of India ministries and departments, statutory authorities, regulators such as the RBI, SEBI, IRDAI and TRAI, state governments and official statistical releases. Comparisons, judgments and "which option suits whom" conclusions are AI-assisted analysis written over those sources; they are marked in the text and listed as an AI-analysis entry in the sources, not attributed to any authority. Fees, slabs, limits and processing times change, often at the start of a financial year on 1 April; figures are current as of the review date shown and should be confirmed with the responsible department before you rely on them. A great deal of Indian administration is state administration — where a rule differs by state, this site says so.
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