CONSUMER AWARENESS
Cola user gets Rs 25K compensation
Forum fines beverage firm after finding junk inside bottle
Forum fines beverage firm after finding junk inside bottle
New Delhi: Leading beverage company Coca Cola India has been asked by a consumer court to pay Rs. 25,000 as compensation to a person who had found junk inside a soft drink bottle he had purchased.
"The junk inside the bottle is visible to the naked eye. Obviously, consumption of the contents of such a bottle by a human being could have proved injurious to one’s health," the Delhi District Forum, comprising President J P Sharma and members Premlata and S M Mazumdar, said.
"We direct the Hindustan Coca Cola Beverage Private Limited to pay to Sheela Rs. 25,000 towards compensation and cost for the sale of defective goods to her which resulted in mental agony," the Forum said.
Haryana resident Sheela had approached the Forum seeking Rs. five lakh in compensation from the company for deficiency in service by providing her the defective product.
The company tried to wash off its hand, contending that the produced bottle was fake one and it was not sealed.
It further claimed that without there being a third-party tampering after the bottles have left its factory gate, it is highly improbable that any such "foreign material" could find its way into the bottle.
"In case, the plea of the company has been that the bottle produced before the Forum was spurious one having not been bottled and sealed by them, there was no point in their denial that it was consisting of some foreign material," the Forum said while rejecting the contention.
The company submitted that the real defect could not be determined without a laboratory test.
The Forum, however, said that it would have allowed the plea to send the bottle to the appropriate laboratory if the application for the same was moved by the company.
Sheela had moved the consumer court after finding junk in the bottle.
"The junk inside the bottle is visible to the naked eye. Obviously, consumption of the contents of such a bottle by a human being could have proved injurious to one’s health," the Delhi District Forum, comprising President J P Sharma and members Premlata and S M Mazumdar, said.
"We direct the Hindustan Coca Cola Beverage Private Limited to pay to Sheela Rs. 25,000 towards compensation and cost for the sale of defective goods to her which resulted in mental agony," the Forum said.
Haryana resident Sheela had approached the Forum seeking Rs. five lakh in compensation from the company for deficiency in service by providing her the defective product.
The company tried to wash off its hand, contending that the produced bottle was fake one and it was not sealed.
It further claimed that without there being a third-party tampering after the bottles have left its factory gate, it is highly improbable that any such "foreign material" could find its way into the bottle.
"In case, the plea of the company has been that the bottle produced before the Forum was spurious one having not been bottled and sealed by them, there was no point in their denial that it was consisting of some foreign material," the Forum said while rejecting the contention.
The company submitted that the real defect could not be determined without a laboratory test.
The Forum, however, said that it would have allowed the plea to send the bottle to the appropriate laboratory if the application for the same was moved by the company.
Sheela had moved the consumer court after finding junk in the bottle.
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