Interest of vehicle Dealers not independent of the Manufacturer: Supreme court sets aside NCDRC order directing car dealer to pay Rs 7.43 lakhs as compensation for misleading advertisement
While setting aside an order passed by the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) whereby a car dealer was directed to pay Rs 7.43 lakh as compensation for a misleading advertisement, the Supreme court held that the interest of the Dealers is not independent of the Manufacturer of the vehicle.
Appeals were filed challenging the orders passed by the NCDRC where it had allowed the revision filed by the manufacturer which consequently led to the Dealers, appellant(s), to be saddled with the liability of the direction issued by the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum to pay the price of the car i.e. Rs. 7,43,200/-.
The appellants argued that they were only Dealers and a grievance in respect of less mileage than published in an advertisement was in respect of the vehicle manufactured, before the NCDRC.
It was argued that in the revision plea, the appellants were proforma respondents as the interest of the Dealers was common with that of the Manufacturer of the car.
The NCDRC noted that the alleged misleading advertisement was issued on 20.06.2007 stating that the vehicle will be giving an average of 31.4 kms per litre, whereas the vehicle was purchased on 09.03.2007.
Therefore, the commission held that the consumer cannot be said to be misled by the advertisement.
With this view, a bench of Justices Hemant Gupta and V Ramasubramanian held,
"Since the interest of the Dealers is not independent of the Manufacturer of the vehicle, we find that the order passed by the Consumer Fora under the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 cannot be sustained against the Dealers, whose interest is common with the manufacturer of the vehicle, in fact derives from the manufacturer of the vehicles."
Accordingly, the appeals were allowed and the complaint was dismissed.
Cause Title: M/S AB MOTOR PVT LTD & ORS v NK PALIWAL (DEAD) THROUGH LRS. & ANR.