Supermarket asked to pay Rs 50,000 to woman for injury

A consumer forum has ordered a supermarket here to pay Rs 50,000 to a 78-year-old woman who suffered an injury when a defective automatic door slammed on her while exiting from the departmental store.
The Thane District Consumers Redressal Forum (TDCRF), in a recent order, held that the safety of a consumer, who visits a shop, is the responsibility of the store and non-compliance of safety conditions amounts to deficiency in services.
Complainant Prabha Deendayal Sharma, a resident of Hiranandani Estate in Thane, told the forum that on November 29, 2007 she, along with her son, had gone to Dmart, located in the Apna Bazar post office premises.

While getting out of the Dmart, the automatic door opened but even before she could come out, it slammed on her following which she fell down. As a result, she suffered a fracture in the pelvic bone and partially lost her hearing, she said, adding that she had to get a hearing aid later on.
She also told the forum that next day she was taken to the IIT hospital at Powai in an ambulance where she was treated for pelvic bone fracture and remained there for six weeks. Due to the injury, she could not stand for a long time and faced several other health complications.

The respondent Dmart denied the allegation that there was deficiency in their services and said the complainant was not supplied a defective product. The mishap had not taken place while she was purchasing anything in the store, the respondent pointed out.