BEFORE THE DISTRICT CONSUMER DISPUTES
REDRESSAL COMMISSION, JALANDHAR.
Complaint No.33 of 2024
Date of Instt. 22.01.2024
Date of Decision: 02.07.2024
1. Satindejit Singh Bajaj aged about 54 years son of S. Surjan Singh.
2. Jagminder Kaur Bajaj aged about 54 years wife of S. Satinderjit Singh Bajaj
Both R/o 366, Mota Singh Nagar, Jalandhar.
..........Complainants
Versus
Clear Trip, Cleartrip Pvt. Ltd., 9th Floor, Tower A, Embassy Tech Village, Devarabeesanahalli, ORR, Bangalore-560103, Through its Manager Director/General Manager/Director.
….….. Opposite Party
Complaint Under the Consumer Protection Act.
Before: Dr. Harveen Bhardwaj (President)
Smt. Jyotsna (Member)
Sh. Jaswant Singh Dhillon (Member)
Present: Sh. Navjot Singh, Adv. Counsel for the Complainants.
OP exparte.
Order
Dr. Harveen Bhardwaj (President)
1. The instant complaint has been filed by the complainants, wherein it is alleged that the complainants are the doctors and are very well known in and their profession. Both are qualified MS/MD (head of the department surgery and Pharmacology) doctors giving services to the patients and for their treatment. For their recreation facility, both of them decided to travel Visakhapatnam and near about areas for their leisure and for attending annual conference of ASICON 2023 travel and for that very service, booking of flights, they have used the portal/app/website of the OP i.e. cleartrip. For the purpose to travel Visakhapatnam and near about areas the leave was taken by the complainants from their busy jobs from 14.12.2023 to 21.12.2023. And by using the ticket platform of the OP, the complainants got booked their flight tickets for 15.12.2023, but unfortunately due to some technical error in your site and on your platform, the tickets got booked of 15.11.2023 from New Delhi to Vishakhapatnam and on return for 20.11.2023, due to some technical problem from your side. Complainants got booking for 15.11.2023 from DEL to VTZ and 20.11.2023 from VTZ to DEL. Thereafter, the complainants contacted customer care of OP and informed about the fact that there is an error on your part that tickets of 15.11.2023 and 20.11.2023 got booked instead of 15.12.2023 and 20.12.2023. Thereafter, various discussions took place and thereafter your representative induced complainants to deposit more amounts for rescheduling the flights of the complainants. As per the inducement of the OP, the complainants have paid Rs.9934, the slip showing the payment of rescheduling charges is on record and after depositing the said amount for rescheduling of the flight of 15/11/23 to 15/12/23 and both were given different PNR numbers and thereafter total amount paid by the complainants for two flights was Rs.24,188/- + Rs.9934/- additional total amounting to Rs.34.122 for rescheduling of flight of 15/11/23 and thereafter by making extra payment, the complainants flight got rescheduled to 15.12.2023. An extra amount of Rs 11628 was paid to your website/app for fresh booking of 20.12.2023. 3. The complainants also got booked Shatabdi express from Jalandhar to Delhi and hotel in Delhi and further stays in Vishakhapatnam and other areas. So as the bookings were already done and leave was applied by the complainants in the month of December, 2023 then question of booking of flights on 15.11.2023 does not arise. After getting flights rescheduled, the complainants made other arrangements and reached Delhi by Train Shatabdi on 14.12.2023 for their flights which was booked for 15.12.2023. On 15.12.2023, when the complainants reached Delhi Airport, the Air India officials said that their flights regarding 15.12.2023 have already been cancelled without any intimation to the complainants. The complainants cancelled their flights of 15.11.2023 and 20.11.2023 so that they may get some refund but they never received any message or intimation that their flights of 15.12.2023 got cancelled, rather the complainants received message that their flights on 15.11.2023 and 20.11.2023 have been cancelled, which crystal clears the fact that flights of 15.12.2023 is still booked, but on reaching Delhi airport and by getting aware about the fact that the flights booked for 15.12.2023 complainants airport and as both got cancelled, shocked the were standing in they had conversation with the customer care of the OP for an about 1 hour 39 minutes and thereafter it was asked to complainants that they would be required to book fresh tickets on the spot as nothing could be done of the previous bookings. The fresh tickets for direct flight on the spot for booking of current flight for two people were approximately Rs.75000/- The said demand of Rs.75,000/- from the complainants was and is illegal, unlawful, arbitrary and inflated that could not be demanded and the complainants were harassed, humiliated and mental agony and pain were caused to them. Both of the complainants were very much suffered due to the illegal, unlawful and unprofessional acts and conduct of the OPs. As the amount demanded was too much high, the complainants decided to return back, rather than going ahead. Thereafter, the complainants stayed in some hotel and they got Shatabi train booked at high rate through Tatkal Booking and return back to Jalandhar. The said cancellation of flights by the OP without any intimation to the complainants is deficient and negligent services towards the complainants who are consumers as defined in Consumer Protection Act. Due to poor and deficient services of the OP and unprofessional behavior and illegal act, the complainant’s holidays got spoiled complainants were forced to return to their homes without going to Vishakhapatnam. Due to negligent, deficient services, the complainants suffered mental tension, pain and as such, necessity arose to file the present complaint with the prayer that the complaint of the complainant may be accepted and OPs be directed to make the payment of Rs.69,870/- alongwith interest @ 15% per annum. Further, OP be directed to pay Rs.70,000/- for causing mental tension and harassment to the complainant and Rs.1,50,000/- for loss of work of the complainants and Rs.33,000/- litigation expenses.
2. Notice of the complaint was sent to the OP, but despite service OP failed to appear and ultimately, OP was proceeded against exparte.
3. In order to prove his respective version, the counsel for the complainant has produced on the file his respective evidence.
4. We have heard the learned counsel for the respective parties and have also gone through the case file very minutely.
5. Both the complainants are the MS/MD doctors. In order to travel Visakhapatnam and near about areas for their leisure and for attending annual conference of ASICON 2023 travel and for that very service, booking of flights, they have used the portal/app/website of the OP i.e. Cleartrip and got booked their flight tickets for 15.12.2023, but due to some technical error in the site and platform, the tickets got booked of 15.11.2023 from New Delhi to Vishakhapatnam and on return for 20.11.2023, which is evident from Ex.C-5. The complainants have alleged that they contacted the customer care of OP and informed about the fact that there is an error on OP’s part that tickets of 15.11.2023 and 20.11.2023 got booked instead of 15.12.2023 and 20.12.2023. For rescheduling the flights of the complainants, they paid Rs.9934/- to the OP, which is evident from Ex.C-6. The complainant also got booked train tickets from Jalandhar to Delhi and hotel in Delhi and further stays in Vishakhapatnam and other areas. On 15.12.22023, when the complainants reached Delhi Airport, the Airport official said that their flights regarding 15.12.2023 have already been cancelled. No intimation to this effect was ever given to the complainant. The complainants had conversation with the customer care of the OP and the complainants were asked to get fresh tickets booked on the spot as nothing could be done of the previous bookings. The fresh tickets for direct flight on the spot for booking of current flight for two people were approximately Rs.75,000/-. In such circumstances, the complainants had to return from airport and stay in hotel at Delhi. The complainants have suffered mental tension and harassment and financial loss because of deficiency in service and unfair trade practice of OPs.
6. On the other hand, the OP has not come to contest the case. So, the version of the complainant remained un-rebutted and un-challenged, even then the same is required to glance very deeply. The allegation of the complainant is supported by his own affidavit Ex.CA and supported documents Ex.C-1 to Ex.C-22.
7. After considering the overall circumstances, it is clear that due to negligence of the OP firstly the tickets were booked for wrong date and then the OP charged excess amount of Rs.9934/- for rescheduling flight from the complainant. Thereafter, the flight was cancelled without any intimation to the complainant, though they were having confirmed ticket. This is clear cut deficiency in service and unfair trade practice on the part of the OP. We are supported by the law laid down by the Hon’ble Meghalaya State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, in a Consumer Appeal No.3 (M) of 1999, decided on 12.04.2003, case titled as ‘Arrow Journey Vs. Ganesh Bhujel & Anr.’ that ‘Flight cancelled without prior intimation to complainant-No alternative arrangement made-complainants holding confirmed tickets had to face inconvenience, harassment and mental tension-Deficiency in service proved-complaint rightly allowed by District Forum-compensation reduced to Rs.10,000/- in appeal’.
8. The complainant has proved on record the tickets charges on first booking of Rs.24,188/- and Rs.9934/- for rescheduling charges of the flight, Rs.1896/- train charges for Jalandhar to Delhi, Rs.1833/- for Treebo Jannat Residency Booking transit stay, Rs.695/- of Ola pre booking charges Jannat Hotel, Rs.240/- Ola charges to Airport from Jannat, Rs.177/- for Ola to Railway Station, Rs.2000/- for New Delhi to Jalandhar Train charges, Rs.11,192/- for Treebo Rushi Grand Hotel booked at the destination and Flight charges from VTZ to Delhi Rs.11,628/-, which total comes Rs.63,783/- and thus, the OP is liable to refund this amount to the complainant.
9. In view of the above detailed discussion, the complaint of the complainant is partly allowed and OP is directed to make the payment of Rs.63,783/- alongwith interest @ 6% per annum from the date of booking i.e. 15.11.2023 till its realization. Further, OP is directed to pay a compensation of Rs.15,000/- for causing mental tension and harassment to the complainant and Rs.10,000/- as litigation expenses. The entire compliance be made within 45 days from the date of receipt of the copy of order. This complaint could not be decided within stipulated time frame due to rush of work.
10. Copies of the order be supplied to the parties free of cost, as per Rules. File be indexed and consigned to the record room.
Dated Jaswant Singh Dhillon Jyotsna Dr. Harveen Bhardwaj
02.07.2024 Member Member President
