| ||
| Dead insects in bottle, Coca Cola fined Rs 1.2 lakh Friday April 28 2006 20:23 IST PTI NEW DELHI: In yet another eye-opener judgement, Coca Cola was on Friday ordered by a city consumer court to pay over Rs one lakh after a man found dead insects in an unopened bottle of Sprite advertised as the companys top product in the soft drink market. It seems that giant companies have only focussed their eyes on their one-point programme - make money. For that end they will even play with the publics health, district consumer redressal forum (North) comprising president K K Chopra and members R K Prabhakar and Neeru Mittal said. The complainant had registered the case against Coca Cola Company, Atlanta, USA; Hindustan Coca Cola Manufacturing Co Pvt Ltd; local manufacturer Moon Beverages Ltd and Suri Cold Drink, the retail outlet from which the complainant had purchased the contaminated drink. Directing Coca Cola and its three Ancilliaries to pay the damages jointly or severally, the forum directed them to pay Rs one lakh to the consumer legal aid fund here and Rs 20,000 towards the complainant towards mental agony caused to him. This judgement follows an earlier one by the same forum ordering identical compensation against soft drink major Pepsico after a consumer chanced upon a condom in a sealed Pepsi bottle. The complainant, Atul Khattar, a resident of Malka Ganj here, had on August 10, 2003, purchased the bottle from the outlet near Sarai Rohilla locality in the capital. Khattar, who then happened to take a glance at the sealed bottle, was shocked to find dead insects floating in the chilled fizz. Subsequently, Khatter filed a complaint with the district forum seeking over Rs five lakh damages for negligence and deficiency in service. In defence, Coca Cola categorically denied any liability towards the complainant claiming that the brand Sprite was not their product. The court effectively countered this argument by annexing as proof certified copies of prints taken from an authorised cola website advertising Sprite as a Youth Icon possessing a straightforward and honest attitude. It further warned Coca Cola of legal action regarding perjury for deliberately attempting to mislead the court by submitting false affidavits before it. Cola has avoided and denied in their affidavits aspects of manufacturing of the soft drink, and the filing of false affidavits before this forum makes it a clear-cut case of perjury, the court said. It brushed aside Colas contention that the bottle may have been manufactured by unscrupulous people bent on spoiling the companys reputation. Coca Cola is vicariously responsible for the spurious manufacturing of Sprite and cannot absolve itself from the prescribed standards of purity as per relevant law, the forum observed. It also directed the soft drink major to the complainant pay Rs 3,000 as litigation costs |
Yahoo! Mail goes everywhere you do. Get it on your phone.
To subscribe, send a message to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Or go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/
and click 'Join This Group!'
SPONSORED LINKS
| Maharishi university of management | Maharishi mahesh yogi | Ramana maharshi |
YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
- Visit your group "FairfieldLife" on the web.
- To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
- Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
