In a landmark ruling, the Supreme Court has ordered Toyota India to pay a total compensation amount of about Rs. 25 lakhs for a Fortuner accident that took place in November 2012 and resulted in death of the driver and causing serious injuries to the owner. The complainant, Gautam Sharma, Fortuner's owner, had pressed charges against four company directors for forgery, cheating and criminal conspiracy. The case did not have the company's name being mentioned. The case stated that failure to deploy airbags had resulted in driver's death in the accident.
The complainant stated that the Toyota Fortuner SUV first hit a pole and then toppled over. To this the manufacturer had argued that the vehicle had toppled over and did not have a frontal collision, due to which the airbags failed to operate normally. Fali S Nariman, a counsel representing the directors had questioned the legality of the argument that presses criminal liability charges against the directors who have been in no way connected to the faulty SUV that had been delivered to Sharma by a dealer. The justice bench reportedly agreed with Nariman's view and asked Sharma's counsel, Vivek Tankha, whether he would settle for a compensation amount. To this, Tanka agreed to accept Rs. 15 lakh compensation to driver's family and Rs. 10 Lakhs to the owner along with the interest amount that would be calculated from the date of accident.
