Customer forced to pay Rs 4 for carry bag wins Rs 5k compensation

KOLKATA:  A nearly four-year legal battle against a departmental store that charged a customer Rs 4 for a carry bag ended two days ago when the consumer district redressal forum in Kolkata passed an order directing the store to pay Rs 5,000 as compensation and Rs 2,000 as expenses to the petitioner.

The forum in its order said the departmental store charging Rs 4 for a carry bag from the petitioner was not legal. In November 2019, Surajit Khanra visited the departmental store in Parnashree, Behala, in south Kolkata. When he turned up before the payment counter after shopping, he found Rs 4 was added to his bill as the charge for a carry bag. Khanra objected as there was a logo of the departmental store on the carry bag which he did not want.

He asked for a bag without any logo. But the person allegedly did not pay any heed to the request. Khanra then decided to move the forum. During the course of the hearing, Khanra said if customers do not want, no departmental store can force him or her to buy carry bags. At the same time, a carry bag with a logo of the product cannot be sold.

In reply, the representative of the departmental store said Khanra was not carrying any bag and he was told that the items that he purchased would be delivered to his address. Unhappy with the submission, the commission asked how could the departmental store promise to deliver the items which would have cost more than Rs 4.

The store then replied that the state government imposed restrictions on the use of plastic bags which are not recyclable and this is why charges were applied that meet the government’s guidelines. The judges on the bench were not happy with the logic of the departmental store. One judge asked why the store authority did not introduce paper bags.