In recent times, on numerous occasions the auto industry has been bugged by safety authorities. To ensure a standard process, government had drafted the ‘Draft Road Transport and Safety Bill’ that was floated by Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH) for comments, proposing that a vehicle may be recalled if any particular defect has been reported by 100 or more people. The defect identified should show that it can potentially harm the driver or the passenger in the vehicle. The defect must also not make the vehicle unusable or prove risky to other road uses.
Car companies in India believe that receiving just about 100 complaints should not oblige car makers to announce a recall as the numbers are too small a threshold. Jnaneswar Sen of Honda India, says “It is not feasible to have an arbitrary number of complaints to trigger recalls of vehicles. If there is a serious issue, found even in few vehicles, it can trigger an inspection in detail by manufacturer and competent authority to establish cause ant taking corrective measures.” Adding to this, Vishnu Mathur, director-general of Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), said, “We are completely against this proposal, and this should not be there in the final bill. We need more debate on the subject. A complaint by 100 people should not trigger a recall, but rather be a cause for an investigation or an analysis.”
As per the new draft manufacturers are bound to pay a fine of Rs. 5 lakh per vehicle that have been identified with defects. The owner of the defective vehicle also stands to be compensated by the car manufacturer for the full vehicle value, or get a replacement or repair of the defective vehicle with another motor vehicle of similar or better specifications. Owing to these terms car makers in the country have called Draft Road Transport and Safety Bill as ‘Arbitrary’ and ‘Unnecessary’.
Commenting on the occasion, officials from Tata Motors said, “Recalls have become an accepted practice in the global auto industry as a recognition of prioritising customer safety and we should look to adopt global best practices that encourage focus on customer safety and encourage recalls… rather than dis-incentivise the practice.”