A Supreme Court bench headed by Justice B.N. Agarwal ordered Tata Motors to pay a Mr. Lachia Shetty a compensation of Rupees 3000, and replace his Tata Indigo LX due to immense noise level. Tata Motors who had challenged the national disputes redressal commission by claiming that the mere allegation of noise without any material evidence cannot qualify to be a defect under the Consumer Protection Act when the level of noise is in conformity with the prescribed limits, was rejected by the bench.

It must be mentioned that the national consumer disputes commission had already ruled in favour of the customer and upheld the decision of the Karnataka State Consumer Commission. The case had earlier gone in favour of Mr. Shetty when Tata Motors failed to produce documents to refute the charges that the noise level was less than the permissible limit of 82 db(A) from a competent authority.

It further stated that unless there was a defect in a new car, no person would come forward to surrender the vehicle within a short period of one to two months. Mr. Shetty had purchased his Indigo LX for Rupees 5.58 Lakhs in February 2008, and had decided to move the court taking into consideration the unbearable noise that emitted due to a defect in the clutch releaser within a fortnight of its purchase.

In a similar case in October 2004, the Delhi State consumer disputes redressal commission had upheld the district forums order directing Tata Motors to replace the faulty engine of an Indica, and also provide a compensation of Rupees 10000 to the customer for mental agony. The car dealer also bore the brunt of the commission and was asked to pay a sum of Rupees 5000 for not providing proper service. The commission reasoned that, the complainant had spent his hard earned money to purchase the vehicle and if it had to be taken to the workshop so often, it must have caused him immense mental agony and harassment.