Connaught Place restaurant fined Rs 10,000 over Rs 80 service charge

Akshay Malhotra was billed Rs 924 for a meal at a Connaught Place restaurant, including an Rs 80 discretionary service charge alongside GST. The Central Consumer Protection Authority has now imposed a Rs 10,000 penalty on the establishment.

The authority took up Malhotra’s complaint on its own and examined the bill he submitted. It found that the restaurant had automatically added the service charge, despite guidelines against including such a charge in bills that have been upheld by the Delhi High Court.

The restaurant told the authority that it had refunded the Rs 80 charge and that it had stopped operating in November 2025. The authority treated the refund and closure as mitigating factors, but said the automatic billing system breached the applicable guidelines.

It has directed the establishment to discontinue the practice immediately, pay the penalty and ensure its software complies within 15 days. For diners, the order reinforces that service charges cannot be automatically added to a restaurant bill.