The Supreme Court has directed Tata Motors Ltd to replace a defective car and pay Rs 3,000 as compensation to the purchaser of the vehicle.

A bench headed by Justice B N Agarwal dismissed the Tata Motors' petition and asked the company to replace the defective car as it created noise beyond the permissible limit.

It also asked the company to pay Rs 3,000 to one Lachia Setty, who bought the Tata Indigo Lx car in February 2004 for Rs 5.58 lakh.

While challenging the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission decision, Tata Motors had stated that the mere allegation of noise without any material evidence cannot qualify to be a defect under the Consumer Protection Act, when the level of noise is in conformity with the prescribed limits.

The Commission had upheld the decision of the Karnataka State Consumer Commission, which was in favour of the buyer of the car.

Setty had earlier won the case in a district consumer forum, which held that "Tata Motors failed to produce documents to refute the charges that the noise level of the vehicle was less than the permissible limit of 82 db(A) from a competent authority."

It further stated that "unless there is a defect in a new car, no person would come forward to surrender the vehicle within a short period of one or two months."

Setty had moved the forum for refund of the money after the car had started making unbearable noise due to defect in clutch releaser within a fortnight.