‘Customer is king’: Supreme Court refuses to stay UP and Uttarakhand govt’s orders to display QR codes in restaurants during Kanwar Yatra
In a big win for the BJP governments in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, the Supreme Court refused to stay the order issued by both governments to display and scan QR codes in restaurants on 22nd July. The court said that the Kanwar Yatra is about to end, so its validity will not be considered now.
The top court has said that customers have the right to know whether non-veg was prepared in the restaurant earlier or not.
A division bench of Justice MM Sundaresh and Justice NK Singh dismissed the petition filed against the UP government’s order to install QR codes in restaurants.
The court has ordered the hotels and restaurants to follow the order of displaying their name and registration number as per the rules.
The apex court said that customers have the right to know whether the restaurant serves only vegetarian food or both vegetarian and non-vegetarian.
Highlighting that it is a matter of customers’ choice, the court said that if non-veg was served in the restaurant earlier, then this information should also be given to the customers.
Appearing for the Uttar Pradesh government senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, said, “There are people in this country who do not eat non-vegetarian food at their brother’s house. The sentiments of devotees are also involved.”
The Supreme Court said that if vegetarian food is served in a restaurant throughout the year and non-veg is also being sold there, then the customer should know this because the customer is the king.
Furthermore, the court said that some people do not eat garlic and onion, and some do not even like to eat in non-vegetarian restaurants. In such a situation, the choice of the customers should be taken care of.
The court said that the license indicates whether it is a veg restaurant, a non-veg restaurant or both. It does not matter much who the shopkeeper is, rather, the customer should know what is cooked at the restaurant.
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