HYUNDAI MOTOR INDIA LIMITED Vs. SHAILENDRA BHATNAGAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Leave granted.

(2.) The appellant are manufacturers of vehicles and the present appeal arises out of a complaint made by the respondent concerning defect in a vehicle, particularly in relation to its safety features originating from the appellant, of the model Creta 1.6 VTVT SX+. The vehicle came with two front airbags. Purchase of the vehicle was made on 21/8/2015. It met with an accident on the Delhi-Panipat highway on 16/11/2017 resulting in substantial damage to its RH front pillar, RH front roof, side body panels, front RH door panels and LH front wheel suspension. The initials RH and LH appears to be used as short forms of Right Hand and Left Hand sides of the vehicle. At that point of time, the complainant (being the respondent herein), his mother and daughter were in the vehicle. The airbags of the vehicle did not deploy at the time of collision. The complainant suffered head, chest as also dental injuries. He attributes such injuries to non-deployment of airbags at the time of accident. The appellant themselves obtained an investigation report which has been referred to as SRS report. The remarks and conclusion of the said SRS Investigation Report, as it appears from pages 53 and 54 of the paperbook were:-

(3.) The Delhi State Consumer Redressal Commission, in a complaint raised by the respondent, upheld his claim. The main theme of his complaint was that the main reason for his purchase decision of the model was because of its safety features including the airbags and the injury was suffered by him because of non-deployment of the airbags. The State Commission granted relief to the following effect:-