South Korean carmaker Hyundai has been ordered to pay a Creta owners Rs 3 lakh by the Supreme Court after the airbags on the SUV failed to deploy after an accident.
A bench of the nation’s apex court awarded the amount to petitioner Shailendar Bhatnagar, who had purchased his Creta 1.6 VTVT SX+ on the 21st of August 21, 2015.
Bhatnagar’s Creta met with an unfortunate accident on November 16, 2017, when the petitioner was travelling in the SUV on the Delhi Panipat highway. The SUV was significantly damaged in the accident and the petitioner who was driving the Creta at the time of the crash suffered injuries in the head, face and chest areas.
Since the Creta’s airbags failed to deploy, Bhatnagar took Hyundai to court. He brought his issues to the Delhi State Consumer Redressal Commission where he filed a case against the South Korean carmaker.
The Delhi State Consumer Redressal Commission ruled in favour of Bhatnagar and awarded him Rs 2 lakh for medical expenses and loss of income, Rs 50,000 for litigation and another Rs 50,000 for the mental agony caused due to the crash.
In addition to this, the state commission had stated that since the petitioner’s vehicle had not been replaced, he was liable to get an interest of seven per cent per annum of the value of the Creta on the day it was involved in the unfortunate accident.
Hyundai, however, did not agree with the Delhi State Consumer Redressal Commission’s ruling. The Korean carmaker challenged the ruling in the National Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission. However, the carmaker’s appeal was rejected and Hyundai was ordered to pay Mr Bhatnagar the amount awarded by the Delhi state commission.
Hyundai once again appealed the ruling taking the case to the Supreme Court, the nation’s highest judicial body.In its defence, Hyundai told the Supreme Court that the accident suffered by Mr Bhatnagar did not meet the conditions required for the airbags to deploy.
However, Hyundai once again ended up on the losing side again as the bench of the Supreme Court hearing the case ruled in favour of Bhatnagar once again. The panel stated that since the damage sustained was to the front end of the SUV, the airbag deployment system had failed.
The apex court also ruled that the customer was not expected to be an expert concerning the deployment of the airbags. The court stated that it was not up to the customer to calculate the intensity of a crash to figure out if the airbags will deploy or not, which is the argument carmakers use to shy away from taking responsibility after such incidents. Instead, the court stated that the customer is under the impression that airbags will deploy naturally in the case of an accident.
In its ruling, the Supreme Court not only upheld the National Commission’s verdict but also direct Hyundai to replace the petitioner’s vehicle.
Thoughts On the Supreme Court’s Order
The Supreme Court of India once again delivered justice in this case. When we as customers purchase a vehicle that features airbags as a part of the standard safety kit, we expect them to deploy if the vehicle is involved in an unfortunate crash or accident. The Supreme Court’s ruling shows that carmakers cannot escape by making the usual statement of an accident not meeting the conditions required for deployment anymore.
*Images of previous-gen Creta used for representational purpose only
Keyword: Hyundai To Pay Creta Owner Rs 3 Lakh After Airbags Failed To Deploy