Consumer court asks dry cleaner to compensate man for burning wedding sherwani

A Chhattisgarh consumer court recently asked a dry cleaner to compensate a customer whose wedding sherwani was burnt during pressing [Dageshwar Yadav v. Ashok Nirmalkar].

In an order passed on July 1, the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission at Raipur held that damaging a customer’s garment while providing dry cleaning services amounts to deficiency in service and unfair trade practice under consumer law.

“By the opposite party ruining the sherwani of the complainant by burning while pressing and not paying its price to the complainant… deficiency in service and unfair trade practice has been done by him,” the Commission held.

The case goes back to September 2019, when the customer, one Dageshwar Yadav, dropped off four pieces of wedding attire, including a sherwani worth around ₹12,000, at a dry cleaning shop in Chandrakhuri village.

When he got his clothes back, the area near the sherwani’s second button had been burnt through, apparently by the hot press. Yadav says he asked the shop owner, Ashok Nirmalkar, to pay for the damage several times, but was met only with excuses, and eventually, an outright refusal.

He first tried the police, filing a written complaint the same day the damage was discovered. The police, however, treated it as a non-cognizable matter and told him to approach the courts instead. Yadav filed his consumer complaint in November 2019, nearly seven years before the case was finally argued in June 2026.

Throughout the proceedings, Nirmalkar never showed up. Despite being served notice, he filed no written response, no affidavit, and no documents disputing Yadav’s version of events. The Commission noted that this left Yadav’s evidence - a police complaint, photographs of the burnt sherwani, a legal notice, and a bill for the garment - entirely unchallenged.

However, the Commission didn’t accept Yadav’s compensation claim in full. It noted that the bill he submitted for the sherwani was produced nearly seven years after the incident, with no explanation for the delay, and did not appear to be reliable.

Instead of the claimed ₹12,000, the Commission estimated the sherwani’s value at ₹6,000. It also trimmed down Yadav’s demand of ₹5,000 for physical, financial and mental distress to ₹3,000, finding the original figure excessive.

It accordingly directed Nirmalkar to pay Yadav ₹6,000 for the sherwani, with 6% annual interest calculated from the date the complaint was filed in 2019, along with ₹3,000 as compensation and ₹5,000 towards litigation costs. The payment has to be made within 45 days, it was directed.

[Read Order]