[Aditya]

Arijit Ray purchased a Hyundai i20 Asta AVN on March 29, 2011. The car had multiple manufacturing defects.

The first and comparatively less worrying issue was with the AVN system. The touchscreen often hung, started on its own and rebooted when the horn was pressed or the steering wheel was turned.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvjSi...ature=youtu.be

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecwgl...ature=youtu.be

A more serious problem that Arijit faced was that the braking system failed on occasions. He observed that when the brakes were applied on uneven, wet or varied surfaces, the brake pedal acted like the clutch and the stopping distance of the car was significantly increased.

Another very serious issue was with the power steering, which used to lock up at times! Arijit stays near the hills and this made the car with its malfunctioning brakes and steering even more dangerous.

Arijit visited the Hyundai workshop on numerous occasions. However, Hyundai's R & D personnel, who were deputed to look into the matter, could not come up with solutions for the problems.

This forced Arijit to approach the Court of the LD. District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, Siliguri on May 22, 2013. Neither Hyundai, nor its dealer has filed a written version against the complainant. The Court deemed that Hyundai and its dealer did not care for the authority of the law as they did not contest the complainant.

Therefore, the case was heard ex-parte and the Court has given its verdict in Arijit's favour, asking Hyundai and its dealer to pay him a full refund or provide a new car of the same model along with registration, insurance and extended warranty as replacement.







It was even discussed in a Facebook post.

[Aditya]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Indian Car Scene.

[abhishek46]

It looks like Hyundai did not respond at all to the complaint, looking at the printout of the court proceedings.

Are they silently accepting the verdict or they are planning to contest it in higher court?

Some one from Hyundai Fan Club has suggested a ridiculous workaround, instead of trying to get Hyundai to rectify it.
If brakes dont work, then change down one gear and re-try. What logic?

[NaXal]

Excellent step by Mr. Arijit to drag them to court. They (makers and sellers alike) need to learn, Indians wont take your nonsense for granted and there is law.

Just to point one thing,

Therefore, the case was heard ex-parte and the Court has given its verdict in Arijit's favour, asking Hyundai and its dealer to pay him a full refund or provide a new car of the same model along with registration, insurance and extended warranty as replacement. Arijit has very kindly shared the court order with us.

It's common for these large companies to avoid District Forum and specially in these cases, where owner is quite far away (almost an overnight journey) from state capital, to challenge the same in State Forum.

They do this to trouble the owner who can't travel always to attend the hearings in a far away city and use this for their advantage.

I have faced similar but fortunately, my District Forum and State Forum are very close to each other.

@Arijit

If you are reading, It's not over yet, and don't worry, in state forum (specially in W.B.), things move a lot faster (personally seen that) and judges are way more professional (they dont tolerate delay or non sense at all) compare to District Forum.

So if that time comes, go and close the same in State Forum also.

[libranof1987]

Originally Posted by Aditya

Arijit visited the Hyundai workshop on numerous occasions. However, Hyundai's R & D personnel, who were deputed to look into the matter, could not come up with solutions for the problems. After a while Hyundai and its dealer refused to show any sympathy towards him.

Does this mean they have acknowledged the problem(s). If they have and can't figure out the solution, it is incredibly inappropriate on Hyundai's part to not offer a resolution. Hyundai's silence on this is even more baffling.

Originally Posted by Aditya

Therefore, the case was heard ex-parte and the Court has given its verdict in Arijit's favour, asking Hyundai and its dealer to pay him a full refund or provide a new car of the same model along with registration, insurance and extended warranty as replacement. Arijit has very kindly shared the court order with us.

This will most likely go through appeals and a long stretched out drama?

Good luck to Mr. Arijit.

On a sidenote: is it the Consumer Affairs Ministry that handles such things? The whole "grahak jaago" campaign. These guys clearly need to pull up their socks and make consumer protection air tight.

[NaXal]

Originally Posted by libranof1987

On a sidenote: is it the Consumer Affairs Ministry that handles such things? The whole "grahak jaago" campaign. These guys clearly need to pull up their socks and make consumer protection air tight.

As far as I am aware, WB (State) Consumer Protection act gives a 90 days time frame to dispose a dispute but with a clause, given the court in question has time to do so, or in proceedings, extra time is not needed.

Mainly things get stuck with that first point, as unfortunately, if anyone has ever been to a Consumer Forum (court) the sheer number of cases are huge and court simply doesn't have time to hear them in such speedy manner.

Usually, in Kolkata or sub urban district, gap between dates are minimum 60 days, that too if you are able to establish your case as very important, life threatening. In district court, you not only fight with your OP to make your case heard, you are also fighting with other petitioners for that extra time of the bench to hear you properly.

This will most likely go through appeals and a long stretched out drama?

If your lawyer is good, he would go ahead with something called Caveat (dont know the exact spelling), where you basically prevent the losing party to open up a case in higher Forum without the court hearing your plea first.

State Forum is much better (in WB at-least) as for this ex party case, Mr. Arijit or his lawyers can dispose the claims of OP with relative ease and lot faster.

[MDED]

The court order is dated September 10, 2015, so I am assuming that complainant would have got a brand new Elite i20 or the refund amount along with litigation expenses and compensation for mental agony.