Hyderabad: A restaurant in Hyderabad has been ordered to compensate a customer for not serving free drinking water and compulsorily levying service charges.
The District Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission-III instructed the restaurant to pay Rs. 5,000 to the complainant.
Hyderabad restaurant sold a 500-ml water bottle for Rs 50
The complainant, a resident of Secunderabad, alleged that the staff at the Hyderabad restaurant failed to provide free drinking water despite his clear indication of being allergic to plastic material.
Left with no option but to purchase water from the restaurant, he complained that a 500-ml water bottle was sold for Rs 50.
This incident occurred despite the Telangana government’s MA&UD department making it mandatory in 2023 for all restaurants and eateries to ensure the availability of free drinking water.
Additionally, the restaurant also levied service charges compulsorily.
After considering the details, the commission ordered the Hyderabad restaurant to refund the service charges, pay Rs 5000 as compensation for not serving free drinking water, and Rs 1000 towards litigation.
Rs 10K compensation to customer
In another incident recently, a different restaurant in the city and food delivery aggregator Swiggy were ordered to pay Rs 10,000 to the complainant for delivering ‘non-vegetarian’ food to a vegetarian.
During the hearing, the Hyderabad restaurant denied the allegations, claiming that the vegetarian special roll contained paneer burji, soya chap, mushroom, and soya shammi kebab.
However, after analyzing the evidence submitted by the complainant, the commission concluded that the photos showed chicken pieces in the roll.
