New Delhi, April 14 (Inditop.com) India’s apex consumer court has ordered Royal Jordanian Airlines to pay Rs.500,000 as damages to a Punjab resident for refusing to fly him to Greece in time despite a confirmed air ticket, resulting in loss of his job and property there.
The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has endorsed the Rs.500,000 fine imposed upon the airlines by a Punjab district consumer court and later upheld by the Chandigarh-based Punjab State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, saying Nanak Singh originally from Jalandhar suffered far greater loss due to the airline’s deficient service.
Singh, who had been working in Greece, came to India in early 2000 on a visit.
“But for the deficiency in service he would have been back in Athens in his job and also taken care of his property which he had to lose for want of proper service by the airlines and his loss cannot be assessed,” said the apex consumer court bench of Justice B.N.P. Singh on April 1.
“In this background the compensation of Rs.500,000 awarded by the district consumer forum and confirmed by the state commission, in our view, appears to be fully justified,” ruled the bench, which included S.K. Naik as its non-judicial member.
His re-entry visa to Greece was valid till March 6, 2000 and Singh had a duly confirmed ticket of Jordanian airlines for March 2. A few days before the departure date, he even also confirmed his March 2 travel plans with the airlines to avoid last minutes blues.
But as Singh reached the Indira Gandhi International Airport to board the Jordanian airlines plane on March 2, he was turned away on the pretext that the airlines was over-booked and his seat was given to someone else. He was asked to come back on March 4.
On March 4, he was allowed to board the plane but immediately thereafter made to disembark on the same old pretext that his seat had been given to someone else.
The airlines refused to consider his plea that his failure to enter Greece by March 6 would result in loss of his job, property and livelihood.
The airlines eventually flew him to Athens on March 25, but by then the damage had already been done. The Greek authorities refused to allow Singh enter their country and summarily deported him back to India.
At this juncture, the Jordanian airlines even tried to help him out by contacting the Greek authorities in Athens and India, but their efforts yielded no result.
Later, the airlines flew him back to India and paid just $150 as “denied boarding compensation”.
Singh eventually moved the Jalandhar district consumer court in January 2002 seeking damages of Rs.500,000 as damages, but the airlines made him withdraw his complaint claiming that he could not have initiated action against it without the approval of the Indian government.
Singh, however, moved the consumer court again in October 2003 after checking the facts with the government. This time around he sought damages worth Rs.1,850,000 but was awarded a relief of Rs.500,000.
The airlines in turn first challenged the Jalandhar consumer court’s ruling before the state consumer commission and later in the national consumer commission at New Delhi. Its plea was rejected at both the stages.
