In awarding model Aashna Roy damages of Rs 2 crore for a botched hair cut at the ITC Maurya hotel in Delhi, the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) has created a history of sorts. Foreign networks have picked up on the news, with headlines like “Indian salon must pay more than 230,000 euros for a failed haircut” and “Hairdresser will have to pay a fine of $271,000 for a bad cut.”
Ahmedabad has always taken a lead in consumer activism, so VOI decided to ask some activists for their views on the case. Consumer activist Rajiv Mehta, for one, thinks the case will open a Pandora’s Box. “The Supreme Court has awarded much higher damages than this in the past, but that was for loss of life. In the Kunal Shah case, for example, a doctor was asked to pay damages of Rs 11 crore for causing the death of an NRI patient. The compensation took into account the dollar value of the rupee. In this case, the compensation seems exaggerated. ITC will surely challenge the NCDC to order it in the Supreme Court.”
First introduced in 1986, The Consumer Protection Act removed consumer cases from the clogged judicial system and set up district-level forums, a State Commission, and a National Commission to handle such cases. The late Manubhai Shah, the founder of the Consumer Education and Research Society in Ahmedabad, played a part in framing the law. His son Anang Shah, who provides voluntary services for consumer disputes, feels the Aashna Roy case is in keeping with the spirit of the law. “The consumer is typically the underdog. In the USA, the courts award exemplary damages to act as a deterrent. Not all aggrieved consumers can take a large company to court, so exemplary damages benefit them as well.”
Rather than hire a lawyer, consumers typically argue cases themselves in the consumer courts. Gurgaon resident Aashna Roy seems to have presented her very case convincingly as it wended its way through the district, state and national commission. ITC, with an annual turnover of Rs 74,979 crore for 2020-21, had its own law firm fighting the case.
Has Gujarat ever had a case of a woman taking a company to court over damaged hair? Rajiv Mehta does recall a case where a man took Unilever to court because the company’s Fair & Lovely cream did not produce the results promised in its advertisements. “He lost the case if I remember correctly,” says Mehta.
Women might relate to the trauma that Aashna Roy went through after visiting the salon at the ITC Maurya in April 2018 ahead of an important interview. Aashna gave the hairdresser specific instructions: cut long layers covering her face in the front and at the back, and a four-inch straight trim from the bottom. Instead, the hairdresser chopped all her hair, leaving four inches from the top, barely touching the shoulders. She immediately complained to the General Manager of the hotel, who said there was nothing he could do and that she was free to take action against the salon.
According to the order dictated by Dr. S.M. Kantikar of NCDRC, the Rs 2 crore awarded to Aashna Roy “not only serves the purpose of recompensing the individual but also aims to bring about a qualitative change in attitude of the service provider.”
