Chandigarh, December 3: Hotels and restaurants can charge more than the MRP (maximum retail price) printed on bottles of mineral water, the Punjab State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has held.
Accepting an appeal by Blue Bakers against an order of the district forum, Amritsar, the commission has underlined that hotels charging more than the MRP for mineral water is not an unfair practice.
Passing the order, presiding judicial member JS Klar and member Kiran Sibal upheld the view taken by Amritsar district forum member Rachna Arora, who did not hold Blue Bakers guilty of deficiency in service.
The complaint came to the commission because other two members of the Amritsar district forum held the bakers guilty of deficiency in service. The commission noted that the opinion of the two members was “erroneous and against the tenor of law”.
Blue Bakers’ counsel, Advocate Sumeet Singh Arora, said: “Gurpreet Singh went to bakers in August 2017 and paid Rs40 for a bottle. He approached the district forum, saying he was charged Rs20 more than the MRP. Besides the cost of mineral water bottle with 18 per cent interest, he demanded Rs30,000 as compensation for mental harassment and Rs10,000 as costs.”
The commission upheld the argument presented by the bakers that the Standard of Weights and Measures Act, 1976, and Legal Metrology Act, 2009, which were being quoted by the customer to prove deficiency in service, were not applicable to the sale of mineral water in restaurants.
The commission upheld Rachna Arora’s view that “there is no deficiency in service or any unfair trade practice on part of the bakers, so the complaint filed by consumer Gurpreet Singh is dismissed”.
Source Tribune India
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