Supreme Court stays NCDRC order that directed ITC to pay ₹2 crore compensation for bad haircut

The Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed a National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) order that had confirmed its earlier award of ₹2 crores as compensation to an aspiring model for a bad haircut she suffered at the ITC Maurya hotel [ITC Limited vs Aashna Roy]..A bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Sudhanshu Dhulia issued notice to the respondent, Aashna Roy on ITC's appeal challenging the NCDRC award..This is the second round of litigation in the matter before the apex court.The Supreme Court had in February this year set aside the compensation amount first awarded in September 2021 and remitted the matter to NDRC for fresh determination.The NCDRC had then considered the matter afresh before reaffirming its earlier order.The NCDRC order relied on emails and applications of proposed modelling and acting contracts presented by the petitioner to reaffirm the earlier amount it had awarded.Since the first order granting the award was passed in September 2021, the respondent ITC Hotels was directed to pay the amount with 9 per cent interest from that date..The incident in question took place in 2018.The petitioner, Aashna Roy, was slated to appear for an interview, before which she went to the salon at the ITC Maurya hotel in New Delhi on April 12 for a haircut. She asked for her regular hairdresser but since she was not available, another stylist was assigned.What according to her was a simple haircut, took over an hour, and Roy was in “utter shock” when she saw that the stylist had “chopped off her entire hair leaving only 4 inches from the top and barely touching to her shoulders”, which was against her instructions.Subsequently, she was offered hair treatment free of cost by the hotel, to which she is said to have agreed after a lot of persuasion.However, post treatment, she alleged her hair turned “hard and rough” in addition to an itchy and burnt scalp. She later tried to seek the assistance of the hotel staff in the matter but alleged that they were “abusive, rude and disrespectful” and she was threatened.Roy stated that she even approached the management of ITC Group and Hotels in vain. She, therefore, filed the plea alleging deficiency in service on the part of opposite parties and sought written apology from the ITC Management besides ₹3 crore in compensation alleging harassment, humiliation and mental trauma.The NCDRC initially awarded her ₹2 crores, after holding that owing to the haircut against Roy’s instructions, by the hotel’s salon, she lost her prospective assignments and “suffered a huge loss” that completely changed her lifestyle and “shattered her dream to be a top model”.ITC Hotels were, therefore, held guilty of medical negligence by the NCDRC..Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi appeared for the ITC Hotels before the top court today.[Read order]