Case studyFire case: Nano owner demands Rs 15 lakh as damages

Mumbai Just at a time the flame seemed to have been doused, there are signs of fresh smoke. Mumbai's Satish Sawant, whose brand new Nano car caught fire in March, has demanded Rs15 lakh as compensation from Tata Motors for “mental stress and trauma” the incident caused for him and his family. In a legal notice dated June 8 to Tata Motors, Sawant has also threatened legal actions in case the auto major fails to act within two weeks from the issue date of the letter.

Sawant’s Nano caught fire on the Eastern Express Highway just one-and-a-half hours after the delivery. The owner was later told by Tata Motors that he had been given a “pre-production or demo” car. Sawant spent Rs 2.4 lakh for the car.

“If you (Tata Motors) fail to act upon within a period of two weeks from the date of this letter, we will be free to take the appropriate course of action or approach the appropriate authority for the same,” reads the notice Sawant sent to the company.

Though the deadline has been passed, Tata Motors is yet to act. Its spokesperson told FE in an email response, “The company has received a legal notice from Sawant, and is in the process of replying it. Sawant has already received the full refund for the Nano he purchased, along with the accessories, and even the interest on the loan he had taken to make the purchase, in settlement of all his claims. As far as Tata Motors is concerned, this is final.”

Archana Sabnis, the advocate handling the case on behalf of Sawant, told FF, “Tata Motors has not contacted us after the notice was sent, and therefore, we will be moving ahead to file a case with the district consumer forum at Parel in Mumbai.” FE has reviewed the notice Sabnis sent to Tata Motors on behalf of Sawant, and it reads, “It is great on your part to offer a refund to my client, which my client had accepted only on oral assurance from your side to pay him a compensation; and which you are duty bound to pay. I thus call upon you to pay Rs 15 lakh to my client towards the compensation.”

This certainly isn’t the way Tata would have liked to celebrate the first birthday of the Nano.

The company is now in the process of investigating the possible causes behind the Tata Nano which went up in flames yesterday in Mumbai, minutes after it was delivered to its customer in Prabhadevi, Mumbai.

Spokesperson for Tata Motors -

This is a unique case. We are trying to figure out what went wrong.

Over the last one year three other cases of Nanos going up in flames have been reported. All the three cars were parked when the incident happened.

Tata Motors announced the problems with the static cars catching fire were due to a faulty switch placed near the steering wheel. The company stopped sourcing that faulty component from the vendor and performed checks to vehicles on the road.

Tata Motors has offered to return the money to Mr Satish Sawant, the insurance agent who cheated death yesterday when the car he was driven in by the company driver suddenly burst into flames, barely 45 mins into the drive.

The exact cause of the fire is still being investigated and it remains to be seen if Tata will deploy one more round of checks before cars are delivered to customers