Cricketer Dinesh Karthik sues sportscar designer Dilip Chhabria

Cricketer Dinesh Karthik seems to have lost his cool. The sportsman has approached consumer forum seeking compensation from popular automobile designer Dilip Chhabria for his failure to refund the booking amount for a DC Avanti sportscar worth Rs 35 lakh. Chabria is the owner of the same automobile design studio which delivered a vanity van to SRK worth Rs 4 crore recently.

As per the petition, Karthik had reportedly paid a booking amount of Rs 5 lakh on May 2013 for a DC Avanti car valued at Rs 35 lakh at the firm’s dealership outlet in Chennai. Back then, the seller had promised a test drive to the cricketer by January 2014, post which he was assured that the booking amount would be refunded in case he is unsatisfied with the car.

But the dealer, however, failed to arrange for a test drive within the stipulated period. According to Karthik, despite repeated reminders the company failed to respond on the delivery timeline of the car. It was only in April 2015 that Chhabria's company responded to Karthik's emails and said that the car was available for test drive only in Pune.

Karthik states that a consumer cannot be expected to enter any legally enforceable purchase agreement without seeing and assessing the final product, especially for something as big as a car that involves aspects like safety and comfort.

When Karthik test drove the car on May 18, 2015 he found that the specifications and driving comfort did not match the glib marketing pitch and hence asked for a refund. The company, however, stated that the cricketer had already taken a test drive and had signed the terms of the car purchase which stated that the refund is not possible.

The cricketer stated that the company failed to produce a copy of the document which he had allegedly signed. Karthik has therefore approached the forum and wants it to direct the dealer to refund the booking amount along with interest and pay a compensation of Rs 5 lakh for causing mental agony.

The matter came up for hearing recently and the district consumer disputes redressal forum, south Chennai, has posted it for further hearing to September 23, 2015.