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Shares of eyewear retailer Lenskart Solutions experienced a decline of nearly 5% on Monday. The company has been facing ongoing backlash on social media regarding an alleged dress code policy. The controversy escalated when an old grooming document surfaced online, claiming restrictions on religious symbols. The document purportedly stated that employees were prohibited from wearing religious symbols such as bindis and tilaks. This revelation sparked outrage on social media, leading to calls for a boycott of the company.

Piyush Bansal's Clarification
Lenskart's founder and CEO, Piyush Bansal, clarified that the leaked document reflects an outdated and irrelevant policy. He emphasized that the current guidelines do not impose any restrictions on religious expressions, including bindis and tilaks.

Company Issues Apology
In light of the growing controversy, Lenskart publicly apologized and released a new in-store style guide. This updated policy allows employees to wear religious and cultural symbols. The new guidelines explicitly recognize symbols such as bindis, tilaks, sindoor, kalawa, mangalsutra, kada, hijab, and pagri. The company expressed deep regret if any employee's feelings were hurt due to previous policies.

Impact on Shares
Despite the company's clarification and apology, the controversy had a noticeable impact on the stock market, with Lenskart's shares dropping by approximately 5% on Monday.

Weak Listing Performance
Lenskart's shares had a lackluster debut in the market last November, listing at about a 3% discount from the IPO price on BSE. However, the company's ₹7,278 crore IPO was quite popular among investors, receiving over 28 times subscription. The stock has since risen more than 30% from its listing price. On Friday, shares opened at ₹530, down 0.9% from the previous close of ₹534.85, but managed to recover by the end of trading, closing at ₹536.20 with a gain of 0.31%.