Judgement

SHELAT, J.:- The respondent-company carries on business as hotellers and conducts several hotels including the Cecil Hotel at Simla. Besides conducting hotels, it also carries on restaurant business. As part of its business as hoteliers, the company receives guests in its several hotels to whom, besides furnishing lodging, it also serves several other amenities, such as public and private rooms, bath with hot and cold running water, linen, meals during stated hours etc. The bill tendered to the guest is an all inclusive one, that is to say, a fixed amount for the stay in the hotel for each day and does not contain different items of each of the aforesaid amenities. That is, however, not the case in its restaurant business where a customer takes his meal consisting either of items of food of his choce or a fixed menu. The primary function of such a restaurant is to serve meals desired by a customer, although along with the food, the customer gets certain other amenities also, such as service, linen etc. The bill which the customer pays is for the various food items which he consumes or at a definite rate for the fixed menu, as the case may be, which presumably takes into