'Paneer hi toh hai': Zomato, Pune hotel slapped Rs 55,000 fine for delivering Chicken instead of Paneer dish!

Food delivery platform Zomato, along with a Pune hotel, has been fined Rs 55,000 by a consumer court for delivering a non-vegetarian dish to a lawyer who had ordered a vegetarian dish. The consumer court directed Zomato to pay the fine within 45 days to city-based lawyer Shanmukh Deshmukh who was delivered non-veg food not just once, but twice! The lawyer had placed an order for paneer butter masala but was delivered butter chicken instead. It has been reported that the eatery made the mistake as the  curries of both dishes look alike. 

According to Zomato, the lawyer complained against the food delivery platform to defame it as it had refunded his amount. Zomato told the consumer forum that the error lay with the hotel which supplied the wrong dish, but the forum considered it to be equally guilty. The hotel, however, admitted its mistake. Both Zomato and the hotel were directed to pay Rs 50,000 for deficiency in service and the remaining amount for mental harassment.

Zee Business Online reached out to Zomato for their comments on the incident but the food delivery platform refused to respond. 

The platform had found itself in a major controversy last year too when one of its food delivery agents was seen eating the customer`s food in Madurai, Tamil Nadu. A video clip of the incident that had gone viral, showed one of Zomato's delivery boys opening packets meant for customers and actually eating the food inside them.

In a blog post, Zomato admitted that the incident highlights real possibility of tampering of food on the way to delivery from a restaurant. It also indicated that it will take firm steps to bring incidents like this to a full stop by introducing new precautionary measures against it. "We take this very seriously and will soon introduce tamper-proof tapes, and other precautionary measures to ensure we add an extra layer of safeguard against such behaviour. Additionally, we will educate our delivery fleet of over 1.5 lakh partners to highlight or escalate any such deviations to us," Zomato had said back then. 

Meanwhile, a latest tweet by Zomato has triggered speculations that it may launch a service where people can order home-made food. "Guys, kabhi kabhi ghar ka khana bhi kha lena chahiye (one should eat home-made food once in a while)," tweeted Zomato. It`s Founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal replied: "Who did this? Good tweet".