Southern States - Tamil Nadu   

Hard nail in soft drink, firm told to pay Rs. 1 lakh

By Our Staff Reporter

CHENNAI APRIL 27. The Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Private Ltd, manufacturers of Limca soft drink, its former bottling unit and two other retailers have been directed to pay a compensation of Rs. 1 lakh to a consumer who was `mentally shocked' to see a `5-cm rusted iron nail' inside a bottle.

The order was passed by the Chennai (North) District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum on a complaint filed by E. Senthil Kumar who bought two Limca bottles paying Rs. 50, which included a deposit of Rs. 32 in May 2001. When he saw a rusted iron nail inside one of the bottles `he was mentally shocked and became nervous on the very thought of the consequences of consuming the contaminated drink'.

Denying any such possibility, the soft drink major, in its counter, said there could be only two possibilities - either the complainant with malafide intention has sought to falsely make the claim or the product which he purchased was a spurious one not manufactured by Coca-Cola Beverages.

The erstwhile bottling partner of Coca-Cola, Chennai Bottling Company Ltd., denied any role in the matter stating that it had sold all its business undertakings in April 2000 itself.

While one of the retailers remained ex-parte, the other said he could not be blamed since his shop only sold the bottle.

On a request from the complainant, the forum comprising the president, K. Ramasamy, and the member, V.M. Thandapani, sent samples to the Food Analysis Laboratory at King Institute in Guindy here.

The analysis report confirmed that the drink was not spurious, and the ground cark closure condition of the bottle was intact and unbroken.

Pointing to the report, the bench said ``There is no evidence to show that the company was taking adequate and effective steps to supervise and control spurious bottles entering the market''.

It made the erstwhile bottling unit jointly liable since it had no evidence to substantiate its claims that it had sold all its holdings.

The bench held the retailers also responsible for the negligence, and said a seller should be diligent, more so because the object was clearly visible even to a naked eye.

Had it been a dark-coloured drink the rusted nail would not be visible, and it would have caused immense damage to the consumer's health, it said before directing all the respondents to pay the damages `jointly and severally' within a month.

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