The complainant, Dr Sameer Bharadwaj, claimed he had purchased a bottle of Mirinda (lemon flavour) and a bottle of Slice from Krishna Trading Company in Sector 21, Panchkula. Both the drinks were manufactured and bottled by Aradhna Soft Drinks Company.

Before opening the drinks at his residence, Bharadwaj detected some debris floating inside the sealed bottles. He intimated the trading firm, which asked him to approach the manufacturing company. Bhardwaj later moved the consumer forum.

In its reply, Krishna Trading Company said it is not the manufacturer of the soft drink in question and hence was not liable. On examining the two bottles, the forum said the company had been negligent in preparing and bottling the products.

“The opposite parties have not furnished any explanation or defence as to why they should not be burdened to pay compensation or damages as claimed by the complainant,” ruled the forum.

Firm to cough up Rs 2,000 for selling underweight milk packet
The UT Consumer Forum has directed Reliance Dairy Foods Ltd, Mohali, and its distributor to pay Rs 2,000 as compensation for selling an underweight packet of milk to Yashpal Singh of Colony Number 5. According to the complainant, he had purchased a packet of dairy-pure DTM milk in August 2008, but found it to be underweight and smaller in size. Following this, Yashpal contacted the distributor as well as the manufacturing company, but to no avail. RDFL in its reply stated that the complainant, without getting the packet examined, had arrived at a conclusion that it was underweight. It added that there was a possibility of tampering or the product being spurious. The case against the distributor was proceeded ex-parte as he file a reply.