Man finds dead fly in biryani at Puducherry eatery. His compensation isn't just cash

A consumer court in Puducherry has ordered a restaurant to compensate a customer who found a dead fly in his chicken biryani, but the most unusual part of the ruling was not the monetary payout.

The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission directed Briyani & Co. to pay Rs 13,000 in compensation and litigation costs to a customer, while also requiring the restaurant to provide him with 10 plates of hygienically prepared Hyderabadi chicken biryani over five weeks as a gesture of goodwill.

The case stemmed from an incident on December 8, 2025, when 26-year-old P. Sundarakumara Manikandan visited the restaurant with a friend and ordered two chicken biryanis worth Rs 558. During the meal, he allegedly discovered what appeared to be a dead fly in the food.

According to the order, Manikandan photographed the contaminated food, recorded a video of the incident and later served a legal notice on the restaurant. He subsequently approached the consumer commission, seeking around Rs 1.3 lakh in compensation, citing health risks, negligence, mental agony and legal expenses.

To support his complaint, he submitted the restaurant bill, photographs, a video recording stored on a pen drive, and copies of the legal notices exchanged between the two parties.

While the commission observed that the photographs alone were not sufficiently clear, it found the video evidence persuasive. The judges noted that the recording appeared to have been made inside the restaurant and showed what looked like a dead fly in the biryani after part of the meal had already been consumed, lending credibility to the customer's account.

The restaurant did not appear before the commission to contest the proceedings and was set ex parte.

In its findings, the commission held that serving contaminated food amounted to a deficiency in service under the Consumer Protection Act. It further noted that the restaurant had failed to rebut the customer's evidence.

The order also pointed to an inconsistency in the restaurant's response. According to the commission, the establishment had apologised publicly in response to a Google review regarding the incident but later denied the allegations in its legal reply, a contradiction that weakened its position.

However, the commission declined to award the full compensation sought by the complainant. It observed that there was no evidence showing that the customer had suffered any illness, physical injury or long-term health consequences of consuming the food.

The judges stated that compensation under consumer law is primarily intended to address actual harm suffered by a consumer rather than serve as a punitive measure against a business.

As a result, the commission ordered the restaurant to pay Rs 10,000 for mental agony and deficiency in service, along with Rs 3,000 towards litigation expenses.

In addition, it directed the restaurant to provide the complainant with 10 plates of Hyderabadi chicken biryani free of cost, to be served as two plates every Sunday for five consecutive weeks and prepared according to proper hygiene standards.

The commission described the free biryani order as a measure of goodwill rather than compensation. The direction appears intended to help restore the customer's confidence in the restaurant's food standards while providing a practical form of redress.

The unusual remedy has since attracted attention online, with many observers pointing out that while the customer did not receive the substantial damages he sought, the court's order ensured both accountability and an opportunity for the restaurant to demonstrate improved food hygiene practices.