The Lack Of Lemon Laws In India Is Really Squeezing The Juice Out Of The Automobile Owners!

^[4] because of the malfunctioning of warning lights in the instrument panel and even after several visits to workshop the dealer was unable to get it fixed. In another case, a resident of Florida was awarded $165,000 as compensation because the instrument panel of his car could not be read in daylight^[5].

^[6], the Supreme Court on analysing the case where after repeated repairs the manufacturer was unable to repair the defect in the car, held that warranty was express and provided for only repair/replacement of the defective part and not the entire vehicle; or, in another case wherein Mercedes Benz through its dealer sold a used car (which previously had also met with an accident) to a customer. After noticing several defects in the car the customer approached the Consumer Forum for replacement of the vehicle. On referral to the National Commission, it was held that the complaints relating to the irregularity of the car had been attended to as per the terms of warranty and hence no replacement of the vehicle was allowed^[7]. Other than these, there have been cases wherein the manufacturer was unable to fix the manufacturing defect in the brakes of the car^[8], or in the body of the vehicle, or in the engine of the vehicle, and the court in those cases let go off the manufacturer by ordering to repair the defect and pay a very meager compensation.

^[9]. U.S. authorities on the ground of the violation of federal laws and harm to its nature extracted $25 Billion from Volkswagen in the form of fines, penalties, and restitution^[10] for the 5,50,000 affected vehicles sold in the US. US authorities also made Volkswagen dealers buy back the cars from the affected car owners. In India too, Volkswagen sold around 3,23,000 affected vehicles^[11]; However, in India, the matter was recently decided by National Green Tribunal (NGT). Earlier, the tribunal has asked Volkswagen India to deposit an interim amount of Rs 100 crores with the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB)^[12], and has recently ordered VW India to pay Rs 500 crores^[13]. The laxity by which this scandal is being dealt with by the Indian authorities clearly gives a hint to automobile manufacturers of themselves being in advantageous position so as to exploit Indian consumers with no concrete remedy at their disposal.

Lack of strong lemon laws, product liability statutes and punitive deterrence has boosted the morale of these manufacturers, who have started treating India as a dumping ground. Are Indian customers the son of a lesser god who are being sold a piece of junk even after paying a hefty premium in comparison to the same model sold abroad? In the recent decade, there has been a total breakthrough in the technological advancements of automobiles. Automobiles are now coming with hi-tech features such as self-driving, self-parking and many more. New-generation automobiles are also coming equipped with gasoline-ethanol blend ready engines or hybrid engines. These technologies are quite generous to nature but have a very complex mechanism. Now a question arises that whether we have laws to protect the consumer if they invest in these automobiles and later face problems because of these still nascent technologies? Do we have proper forum or mechanism at our disposal to protect the consumers from getting duped if these cars are unable to adapt in Indian road conditions?

^[14], should encourage India to start taking complaints related to automobiles more seriously.