In 2017, the government's consumer affairs department issued a set of guidelines saying that customers only had to pay the prices displayed on the menu card along with government taxes.

The department said that people could use their "discretion" on whether or not to leave a tip and that extra charges without the customer's consent amounted "to unfair trade practice".

The government had instead encouraged restaurants to pay fair wages to its employees and increase product prices to meet the cost.

Restaurants have, however, continued to add the tip to the bill, leaving it up to patrons to contest the extra charge.

Last month, the government called a meeting with the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI), saying it had received an increasing number of complaints from consumers that they were still being "forced to pay service charges, often fixed at arbitrarily high rates" and that "they are harassed if they request to remove it from the bill".

The NRAI, which represents more than half a million restaurants, had defended the practice, saying it was a "matter of individual policy" and levying such a charge was not "illegal".

They also argued that the service charge brought additional revenue to the government too since restaurants paid a tax on what they charged customers.

The new guidelines say that consumers can lodge their complains online or through the National Consumer Helpline.

BBC