New Delhi, Apr 29 (PTI) The Delhi High Court on Tuesday set May 9 to hear pleas of restaurant bodies challenging an order against the mandatory levying of service charge on food bills.

The appeals by National Restaurants Association of India (NRAI) and Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Associations of India came before a bench of Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela.

Also Read | How To Buy Digital Gold Online Through Google Pay, Paytm and Other Platforms on Akshaya Tritiya 2025.

The bodies challenged a single judge's March 28 verdict dismissing the petitions of restaurant bodies against the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) guidelines, issued on July 4, 2022, prohibiting hotels and restaurants from mandatorily levying service charge on food bills.

The single judge upheld the guidelines and imposed Rs 1 lakh cost each on the petitioners to be deposited with the CCPA towards consumer welfare.

Also Read | Akshaya Tritiya 2025: Check List of 10 Best Gold ETFs in India and How To Buy Them.

The mandatory levy of service charge by the restaurant establishments, the single judge said, was against public interest and undermined the economic and social fabric of consumers as a class.

The single judge further said the collection of service charge was a "double whammy" for consumers who were forced to pay Goods and Services Tax on top of the service tax.

NRAI, in its appeal through advocate Lalit Bhasin, has raised several questions of law including whether a levy of service charge, which is specifically mentioned on the menu card of a restaurant and displayed elsewhere in the establishment, constituted an unfair trade practice under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019.

The appeal further asked if the guidelines were not beyond the jurisdiction of the CCPA.

Before the single judge, Federation of Hotels and Restaurant Associations of India and NRAI had filed two separate petitions in 2022.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)