Shivani Thakur
Published on: May 30, 2022, at 17:32 IST
A man who found worms inside a bar of chocolate he purchased for Rs. 89 from a local store approached a Bengaluru Court seeking compensation ranging from Rs. 20 lakh to Rs 50 lakh. However, the Court directed him to the State Consumer Court as the compensation he was seeking was “beyond our reach”.
Mukesh Kumar Kedia, a resident of Bengaluru’s HSR Layout, bought chocolates for his niece. A few days later, when Kedia discovered that one of the bars had worms, he complained to Cadbury’s customer helpline.
The customer care personnel asked Kedia to hand over the worm-invested chocolate bar, however, he refused & sent them a photo as proof.
He filed a ‘service deficiency’ complaint against the quality department head of Mondelez India Foods Private Limited, the manufacturer of Cadbury Chocolates, & MK Retail’s HSR Layout branch, the news agency reported.
The Court said that the compensation he was seeking was beyond their jurisdiction. The case was filed in 2016 under the Consumer Protection Act of 1986 which only permits hearing of pleas up to Rs 5 lakh & not the revised Consumer Protection Act, 2019, which allows consumer courts to hear cases up to Rs. 1 crore.
The City Consumer Court gave its verdict on April 8 this year & ordered that it has no ‘pecuniary jurisdiction’ to hear the 2016 complaint.
The Court further directed Kedia to approach the State Consumer Forum.