A consumer court in Karnataka has fined a restaurant Rs 10,000 for charging Rs 10 extra for mineral water bottles.
The complainant in the case is Keshava S P, 45, an advocate from Ramanagara district. The accused restaurant is Naivedyam, a vegetarian restaurant in Hospet in Vijayanagara district.
In its July 24 order, the Ramanagara District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission asked the restaurant owners to pay Rs 20 to the complainant as they had charged Rs 10 extra for each of two water bottles bought at the eatery. It also directed the restaurant to pay Rs 7,000 for the mental agony caused to the complainant and Rs 3,000 towards litigation costs.
The order states, “There is no contrary evidence available on record on behalf of the opposite party in order to disprove or discard the above evidence of the complainant.”
“It has become common to charge more than the MRP for packaged goods. No authority has the power to charge above the MRP for any packaged goods. It does not matter where it is sold, consumers are not required to pay a rupee above the MRP,” it adds.
The incident took place on December 28 last year, when Keshava along with his family came to the restaurant for dinner after visiting Hampi. The waiter gave him a Rs 681 bill wherein they charged Rs 30 for every bottle of “Aquafina packaged drinking water from PepsiCo” but the Maximum Retail Price (MRP) was just Rs 20.
The eatery staff purportedly abused Keshava when he asked them about the extra charges levied on mineral water bottles. (Agencies)
