Indian restaurant fined for refusing to serve Indian customer

AN Indian restaurant has been fined after its owner refused to serve a man because he was Indian.

Ravi's Kitchen, in Dublin, has been ordered to pay €3,000 (£2,745) after Mayank Bhatnagar lodged a discrimination complaint that was heard before the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC), reported The Irish Times on Tuesday (20).

Bhatnagar visited the establishment in July last year with two colleagues with the intention of having lunch.

Ravi Shukla, the owner of the restaurant, was handing out menus and when asked how long it would take for lunch to be served, the owner questioned if Bhatnagar was Indian. \

He was told that they did not serve Indians.

According to reports, Bhatnagar’s colleagues, who were not Indian, were not refused service.

Bhatnagar claimed that Shukla, from northern India, began shouting about how his family had suffered before the group left.

No representative from the restaurant was present at the WRC hearing.

Marie Flynn, the WRC judge, said that the customer had been discriminated against on the basis of race, contrary to the Equal Status Acts.

“I am satisfied that he has established that he was treated less favourably than a person who was not Indian would be treated in a comparable situation.” she said. “I find therefore that the complainant has established a prima facie case of discriminatory treatment on the race ground.”

The restaurant owner said Tuesday (20) that he intended to appeal the ruling. “I refused to serve him because he was unhappy with how long the lunch would take and he wanted a buffet and we didn’t have a buffet.

“It is a very one-sided ruling. I have lots of Indian customers and I have never refused them service because they are from India.”