The authority has now argued that the petitioner associations do not reflect the views of all the stakeholders as many associations have welcomed the formulations of these guidelines and, therefore, the case set up by the petitioners is palpably misleading.
It was also stated that the guidelines were issued after exhaustive deliberations and after noting the fact that hundreds of complaints were received alleging that hotels were forcing consumers to pay service charge.
This charge ranged between 5-20% and consumers were being forced to pay this irrespective of the kind of service provided, the authority submitted.
Source: Barandbench