ITC-Welcom Group serves stale food, consumer forum orders Rs 15K compensation

ITC-Welcom Group has been ordered by a consumer forum here to pay Rs 15,000 to a passenger as compensation for serving him "stale food" at its IGI Airport lounge and making him fall ill after its consumption.

The South West District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum held the ITC-WG lounge guilty of serving food which was "hazardous for human life."

"We find opposite party (ITC-WG port lounge) guilty of supplying the stale and defective food stuff to complainant which was hazardous for human life and the complainant fell ill after eating the same. It is liable to compensate the complainant for harassment, inconvenience and mental agony suffered by him.

"Therefore, we order the opposite party to pay Rs 15,000 to complainant... This amount also includes the cost of litigation," said the bench presided by Narendra Kumar.

The forum's order came on Gurgaon resident Bharat Singh's complaint against ITC-Welcom Group port lounge at IGI Airport and ITC Hotel, Sheraton Towers here.

In his complaint, Singh had said he had purchased a chicken sandwich and coke from the ITC lounge at the airport on May 20, 2008 and he had fallen ill after consuming it.

ITC in its defence had contended that it supplies food after checks and tests by a microbiologist and the ITC Hotel i.e. Hotel Maurya, New Delhi maintains the highest standard.

Hence, the complaint is false and frivolous and is liable to be dismissed.

The forum relied on the prescription of medicines and report of Max Hospital where Singh had undergone treatment to observe "it is apparent that after eating the stale food i.e chicken sandwich and coke sold by ITC, he fell ill".

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