Tata Motors MD Slym faces six months jail

A consumer court in Chandigarh has ordered six-month jail term for Tata Motors managing director Karl Slym for failure to comply with its orders.

The consumer redressal commission also slapped a penalty on Slym for Tata Motors' failure to comply with a notice to replace faulty parts of a newly-sold Tata Nano, the car that was supposed to be a mass hit but has proved something of a drag on the market.

A CNBC-TV18 report quoted a company spokesperson as saying that they would study the order and take appropriate action.

The spokesperson, however, said that despite repeated attempts to pay the consumer compensation, and despite repairing the car, the company did not get any cooperation from him.

Slym, meanwhile, is pushing Nano sales into Thailand's passenger car market, where Tata already sells its range of light commercial vehicles.

While Nano, launched in 2008, has captured global attention as the 'World's cheapest car', it has failed to captivate prospective customers.

The small car will now sail to Thailand sometime during the third quarter of this year.

''We want to expand our product portfolio in Thailand and have decided to offer the Nano during the third quarter of this year,'' Slym was quoted as saying.

The Nano to be launched in Thailand, however, will be an updated version of the current version and much improved from the basic car launched for the first time in India in 2008.