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The Supreme Court has reduced compensation awarded to a woman over a “faulty haircut” at a luxury hotel salon from Rs 2 crore to Rs 25 lakh, ruling that damages must be supported by material evidence.A bench of Justices Rajesh Bindal and Manmohan, in a judgment delivered on February 6, said “deficiency in service” had been established, but compensation in consumer disputes cannot be based on the “mere asking” or “whims and fancies” of a complainant.Justice Bindal, who authored the 34-page judgment, said, “The damages cannot be awarded merely on presumptions or whims and fancies of the complainant. To make out a case for award of damages, especially when the claim is to the tune of crores of rupees, some trustworthy and reliable evidence has to be led.”The verdict said the case was not a minor dispute where the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission could award compensation using a thumb rule or rough estimation.”Claim of compensation was for crores of rupees, for which some loss suffered by the respondent because of deficiency in service was required to be established. This could not be established by merely producing photocopies of the documents. Even the discrepancies in the photocopies produced on record by the respondent, as pointed out by the appellant, have been noticed … Thus, even after remand, the respondent has not been able to make out a case for award of such huge compensation,” the verdict said. The court said the apex consumer panel erred in awarding Rs 2 crore in compensation based on photocopies of documents. It rejected the panel’s view that reliance on photocopies was justified because the complainant may not have retained originals due to trauma, noting this could not justify such a large award.The verdict added that even if only photocopies were available, there were other ways to substantiate the claim.”Even if the Code of Civil Procedure may not be strictly applicable, the Commission has not assessed as to how the respondent suffered loss to the tune of Rs 2,00,00,000/-. General discussion in the impugned judgment may not justify the same,” the verdict said.Aashna Roy visited the hotel salon in 2018 and asked the staff to trim about four inches (10 cm) from the ends of her hair. However, the hairdresser cut off most of her hair, leaving only about four inches from the top, with her hair barely touching her shoulders.The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission had awarded compensation on the grounds that Roy was an established model and that the haircut affected her career. The court had said at the time that the incident led to a “severe mental breakdown and trauma.”
