BEFORE THE DISTRICT CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL COMMISSION, SIRSA.
Consumer Complaint no. 24 of 2020.
Date of Institution : 09.01.2020.
Date of Decision : 29.04.2024.
Simarjeet Kaur (aged about 52 years) wife of Jasvir Singh, resident of Plot No. 02, Bhuna, District Kaithal, now residing at Shah Satnam Ji Nagar, Begu Road, Sirsa.
……Complainant.
Versus.
1. Cleartrip Pvt. Ltd., 06, Godrej Business District Feroj Shahnagar, Vikhroli, Mumbai- 400079 through its Director/ Authorized Signatory.
2. Cleartrip Pvt. Ltd., 03-119, 3rd Floor, DLF Forum, DLF Cyber City, DLF Phase 3, Sector 24, Gurugram Haryana- 1220002 through its Manager/ authorized signatory.
...…Opposite parties.
Complaint under Section 12 of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986.
Before: SH. PADAM SINGH THAKUR ………………PRESIDENT
MRS.SUKHDEEP KAUR……………………….MEMBER.
Present: Sh. Sandeep Galav, Advocate for complainant.
Opposite party no.1 already exparte.
Opposite party no.2 already given up.
ORDER
The complainant has filed the present complaint under Section 12 of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 (after amendment u/s 35 of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019) against the opposite parties (hereinafter referred to OPs).
2. In brief, the case of complainant is that she alongwith her husband Sh. Jasvir Singh and her children i.e. daughter Muskaan and son Arshpreet Singh had to visit San Fransisco and on 02.11.2019 the complainant had booked online four tickets for up and down from the ops from Delhi to San Fransisco for 07.11.2019 and for return for 12.11.2019. The departure time of said flight was 00.05 on 07.11.2019 and at the time of purchasing the said tickets, it was told to the complainant that there will be only one stay between Delhi to San Fransisco and that stay will be at Guanjzhou and the ops charged an amount of Rs.2,34,940/- which was paid by complainant to the ops through RTGS from her bank account No. 09892191051807 on 02.11.2019. The online tickets were sent by ops to the complainant through email and the tickets itself show only one stay between the journey i.e. at Guangzhou. It is further averred that when on the departure day i.e. on 7.11.2019 the complainant and her family visited at Indira Gandhi Airport at New Delhi for day boarding, then by the authorities of Airport it was told to them that there will be two stay between their journey i.e. one stay will be at Guanjzhou and second stay will be at Wuhan and for stay at Wuhan, they have to show their Visa of China by purchasing immediate Visa for China also, otherwise they will not be able to take the flight. It was also advised by the authority to the complainant to purchase new tickets from Indian Airline, which will be at 04.00 a.m. i.e. after four hours. That then complainant contacted the ops on their customer care number and disclosed the aforesaid facts to the ops and complained that tickets have been sold to her by playing fraud and mis-representation and asked to solve the problem but the problem was not solved by ops despite several efforts and requests. It is further averred that then complainant again contacted on their customer care number and requested to refund the amount paid by her on which the ops firstly stated that amount will be refunded to her immediately but thereafter they made lame excuses and ultimately they flatly refused to refund the amount paid by her and ops did not redress the grievance of complainant. That on seeing no other alternate, the complainant had contacted her relative Mr. Rajinder Singh presently residing at Germany and asked him to purchase four tickets and then he purchased four tickets from mytrip from Delhi to San Fransisco for 07.11.2019 with four return tickets for 12.11.2019 and for these fresh four tickets an amount of Rs.3,65,000/- was paid by him from his bank account. That then they became able to take their flight and said amount of Rs.3,65,000/- was borrowed by her from her relative which is still to be returned to him by her because the said amount paid to the ops was not refunded and complainant did not arrange money from any other source. It is further averred that complainant had to pay extra amount of Rs.1,30,060/- for purchasing new tickets for Rs.3,65,000/- and complainant is also entitled to recover the said amount of Rs.1,30,060/- from ops. That due to such wrong, illegal and unlawful act of the ops and their other officials, the complainant has suffered harassment and agony and is entitled to refund of Rs.2,34,940/- alongwith interest at the rate of @2% per month since 02.11.2019 till its realization and is also entitled to refund of amount of Rs.1,30,060/- alongwith interest at the rate of @2% per month since 07.11.2019 and she also reserves her legal right to initiate criminal proceedings against the ops. That complainant thereafter got served a legal notice dated 21.11.2019 upon ops but to no effect. Hence, this complaint.
3. Notice of the complaint was issued to the ops. Op no.1 failed to appear despite notice sent to it through registered cover and after stipulated period as none appeared on behalf of op no.1, therefore, op no.1 was proceeded against exparte. Op no.2 was given up by learned counsel for op no.2 due to non availability of its address.
4. The complainant in evidence has tendered copies of documents i.e. legal notice Ex.P1, pass book of bank account Ex.P2, ticket provided by mytrip Ex.P3, ticket provided by cleartrip i.e. ops Ex.P4 and return ticket Ex.P5.
5. We have heard learned counsel for complainant and have gone through the case file.
6. From ticket Ex.P4 provided by ops to the complainant, it is evident that it is mentioned in the ticket that there will be one stay at Guangzhou between New Delhi to San Francisco and there is no mention of second stay at Wuhan in the said ticket. However, when the complainant and her family members reached at Indira Gandhi Airport, Delhi for taking their flight then the Airport authorities told them that there will be two stay between their journey i.e. at Guangzhou and at Wuhan and they have to show their visa of China by purchasing immediately Visa for China also, otherwise they will not be able to take the flight. According to the complainant, the ops have sold the ticket to them by mis-representation and they have to purchase another ticket by spending another amount of Rs.3,65,000/- through their relative. In this regard complainant has also placed on file another ticket purchased through mytrip as Ex.P3. The pleading as well as evidence led by complainant goes as unchallenged and unrebutted as op no.1 has failed to appear despite notice and opted to be proceeded against exparte. So, it is proved on record that complainant had to purchase another ticket by spending extra amount of Rs.1,30,060/- through mytrip and ops sold the ticket to the complainant by misrepresenting the fact that there will be only one stay between their journey and as such there is deficiency in service on the part of ops and they have adopted unfair trade practice towards the complainant. The ops have also caused unnecessary harassment to the complainant. As such complainant is entitled to refund of the amount of Rs.2,34,940/- charged by ops for the ticket and is also entitled to Rs.1,30,060/- extra spent by complainant due to act and conduct of ops. The ops have failed to redress the grievance of complainant despite her repeated requests and despite legal notice. As such, op no.1 is liable to make refund of the said amounts to the complainant.
7. In view of our above discussion, we allow the present complaint and direct the op no.1 to make refund of the total amount of Rs.3,65,000/- to the complainant alongwith interest at the rate of @6% per annum from 07.11.2019 till actual realization within a period of 45 days from the date of receipt of copy of this order. We also direct the op no.1 to further pay a sum of Rs.10,000/- as compensation for harassment and Rs.5,000/- as litigation expenses to the complainant within above said stipulated period. A copy of this order be supplied to the parties as per rules. File be consigned to the record room.
Announced. Member President
Dt. 29.04.2024. District Consumer Disputes
Redressal Commission, Sirsa.
