Footwear maker Bata has been fined Rs 9,000 by a Chandigarh based consumer forum for asking a customer to pay Rs 3 for a paper bag, Business Today reported.

Dinesh Raturi, a Chandigarh resident filed a complaint with a consumer forum, following an incident that occurred when he bought a pair of shoes from the Bata store in Sector 22D on February 5.

The store charged him Rs 402 which included the price of the paper bag worth Rs 3. However, Raturi refused to pay the extra charges for the bag and sought compensation for the deficiency in its services.

However, the footwear maker refuted all the claims.

Following the complaint, the Chandigarh-based regulator said that it is the company’s duty to provide a free paper bag to its customer "if the companies were that worried about the environment,” the report said.

It also ordered Bata to pay Rs 1,000 as litigation charges, Rs 3,000 as compensation to the customer for the mental disturbance caused by the deficiency in services and Rs 5,000 in lieu of the legal aid on account of the State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission.