KFC told to pay Rs 7K for delivering non-veg burger against veg order

Ramkrishan Upadhyay

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 10

The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, Chandigarh, has directed the manager of the KFC outlet in Sector 35-C to pay Rs 7,000 to a city resident as compensation for causing mental agony and harassment to him and his wife for serving non-vegetarian food wrongly. The commission also directed KFC to pay Rs 5,000 towards costs of litigation.

In a complaint filed before the commission, Anirudh Gupta, a city resident, stated that he and his wife were regular customers of KFC. His wife is from a Brahmin family and is a hard core vegetarian. On May 3 last year, he ordered a chicken bucket for himself and a classic veg crisper for his wife through the online app of KFC and paid Rs 696.59 via Google Pay.

On receipt of the order, his wife had taken the first bite when she experienced something unfamiliar and not a regular taste. They were shocked to find that the burger was not a vegetarian one and had chicken stuffing. Since his wife was a pure vegetarian, she started vomiting immediately after realising that the burger was a non-vegetarian.

Thus, due to the negligence of the OP, his wife was in a mental dilemma and under immense stress and her sentiments were hurt, the complainant stated.

On the other hand, the OP ( KFC) claimed that the complaint was filed on false and frivolous grounds with malafide intention and ulterior motive to extort money and defaming its brand.

The complainant concealed the fact that it was a takeaway order and was collected after checking and there was no negligence on their part.

After hearing of the arguments, the commission observed that the OP, instead of providing a veg crisper burger as mentioned in the bill, delivered a non-veg crisper burger stuffed with chicken, which was fairly apparent from the pictures of the food item. It clearly amounted to deficiency in service and negligence on the part of the OP, the commission observed. The act of the OP hurt the sentiments of the complainant’s wife, which caused a lot of mental agony and stress to her. The commission stated that in view of this, the OP was directed to pay Rs 7,000 to the complainant as compensation for causing mental agony and harassment to him and his wife and Rs 5,000 towards costs of litigation.