Air India held guilty of deficiency in service in Subramanian Swamy case
Himachal Pradesh State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission ordered Air India to refund Rs.2,500, the ticket amount, along with interest, and pay Rs.50,000 towards compensation for harassment and litigation costs to BJP leader Subramanian Swamy. Holding Air India guilty of deficiency in service, in a recent order, the bench of Justice Inder Singh Mehta (President) and Partap Singh Thakur (Member) said the carrier clearly violated norms when change in the flight timings.
“(The) onus lies upon Air India to inform the passenger pertaining to the flight’s timing, but it failed to discharge its onus by leading cogent and convincing evidence. The findings given by learned District Commission below regarding non filing of affidavit of Dr Swamy is irrelevant in presence of the ticket issued in the name of Dr Swamy, wherein time of departure is given as 7:50 am and accordingly, Dr Swamy reached at Delhi Airport at the time mentioned in the ticket, but the flight in question had already departed from Delhi at 6:50 am without any prior intimation to complainant or Dr Swamy, which amounts to deficiency in service on the part of the opposite parties. Therefore, the complainant is entitled to a refund of the ticket amount,” said the Order. Senior Advocate Ajay Jagga appeared for Subramanian Swamy.
The case stemmed from a ticket booked in October 2019 by Rohit Bhagwat, the complainant, for Dr Swamy to travel from Delhi to Shimla on flight AI-9803. The ticket showed the departure time as 7:50 am on October 19, 2019. However, when Swamy arrived at Delhi airport, he was informed that the flight had already departed at 6:50 am. Left stranded, Swamy was forced to buy another ticket to Chandigarh, from where a special chopper was arranged to take him to Shimla, where he was scheduled to preside over a lecture on nationalism at Himachal Pradesh University.
Air India argued that the rescheduled time was reflected in its records and that repeated calls were made to Dr Swamy to inform him, but he allegedly did not respond. The airline further claimed that since the ticket was booked in Swamy’s name, the complaint filed by Bhagwat was not maintainable as he was not the actual passenger. The commission rejected these arguments, noting that the ticket clearly mentioned the departure time as 7:50 am. It also observed that Air India had failed to produce call records or examine its staff member who allegedly contacted Swamy. It ruled that Mr Bhagwat, who had purchased the ticket using his own funds, was a consumer under the law and therefore entitled to seek redress.
In its order, the commission directed Air India to refund the Rs.2,500 ticket cost with 9% annual interest from the date of filing of the complaint. It further ordered the airline to pay Rs.25,000 as compensation for harassment and mental agony and another Rs25,000 towards litigation costs. The directions are to be complied with within 45 days.
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