Forum termed it as deficiency of service & an unfair trade practice resulting in not only loss to a large number of unidentifiable consumers.
In a landmark judgment, the Thane district consumer redressal forum recently held that charging a customer over and above the MRP amounts to deficiency in service and ordered the management of the hotel to refund the excess amount it had charged along with INR 2,000 towards legal expenses.
The consumer, MG Bhagat, dragged the management of Divya International Hotel, located in Charai in old Thane, to the consumer forum for charging in excess of the MRP for three bottles of water he purchased in September 12, 2009.
“I was charged INR 30 a bottle and paid a total of INR 90, for which I sought a receipt. I demanded the receipt as there was a huge difference in the price printed on the bill and the MRP (INR 13) embossed on the bottles. The hotel charged an excess of INR 17 per bottle,” said M G Bhagat
He filed a legal notice on the hotel, which was not responded to, after which he filed a complaint with the forum. Bhagat also made the manufacturer of the packaged drinking water a second respondent but the forum absolved it as the complainant was not a direct customer of the company. In its argument, the hotel’s management argued that the complainant was not staying with them and denied that he had purchased the bottles from the hotel. It also submitted that it charged the same amount from all its customers.
The forum, however, dismissed all the submissions by the hotel and held that the receipts produced by the complainant proved that excess amount had been charged for the bottles and it was nothing but deficiency in service.
Forum president Sneha Mhatre and members Madhuri Vishwarupe and ND Kadam in their order said: “The complainant. has made out a case of unfair trade practice resulting in not only loss to him but loss to a large number of unidentifiable consumers” and held that charging excess amount for a product than the printed MRP is considered as deficiency in services. The forum ordered that the management should make the payment of INR 2,000 by March 15 else pay interest at 9% till realization. It also ordered refund of the excess amount of Rs 51 charged for the three bottles.
