District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission ,Faridabad.
Consumer Complaint No.418/2021.
Date of Institution: 24.08.2021.
Date of Order: 21.12.2022.
Mr. Gaurav Arora, 446, Sector-10, Housing Board Colony, Faridabad – 121006.
…….Complainant……..
Versus
Go Airlines (India) Limited, Ist floor, C-1, Wadia International Centre, Pandurang Budhkar Marg, Worli, Marathahalli Outer Ring Road, Mumbai – 400 025.
…Opposite party……
Complaint under section-12 of Consumer Protection Act, 1986
Now amended Section 34 of Consumer protection Act 2019.
BEFORE: Amit Arora……………..President
Mukesh Sharma…………Member.
Indira Bhadana………….Member.
PRESENT: Complainant in person.
Sh.Sachin Parashar, counsel for opposite party.
ORDER:
The facts in brief of the complaint are that the complainant booked a Honeymoon trip to Port Blair and the air tickets of Go Air from Delhi to Port Blair was a part of the package. The complainant was supposed to board the flight from Delhi on 22nd Feb. 2021. The route was supposed to be through a connecting flight and the same was scheduled from Delhi to Mumbai to Port Blair. The complainant was supposed to travel alongwith his wife and the trip was planned accordingly. On 22.2.2021 the complainant and his wife reached Indra Gandhi Airport, New Delhi to board their scheduled flight. But the complainant and his wife were surprised when both of them were not allowed to check inn to board their flight. Upon requesting and asking for the long time, the complainant and his wife were told by the authorities that the complainant and his wife could not board the flight as the time of test/report was not mentioned in their Covid reports. However, it was pertinent to mention that the date was there in the reports and all the Government hospitals follow the same report format. With respect to the travelling guidelines, the state guidelines specifically told that the Covid report should not be older than48 hours and there was no specific mention of the time in the report in this regard. Infact Go Air website and the issued tickets did not have any such requirement mentioned regarding the covid report. As the complainant and his wife were not allowed to board the flight even after many requests and discussions, therefore, the complainant and his wife missed the flight. The complainant and his wife approached GMR Team, where Mr. Naveen Gupta, Duty Manager and Mr. Ranjeev Radha Krishna, Go Air Manager met the complainant and advised the complainant to get the Covid test done again at Terminal 3, at the expenses of the complainant. They also advised the complainant and his wife to travel to Mumbai and board the connecting Go-Air Port Blair flight from there. Further, the complainant was assured that the airlines would consider this as a special case and the complainant and his wife would be allowed to bard the connecting Go-Air Blair flight from Mumbai which was scheduled to depart at 3:00am on 23.2.2021. it was also confirmed that the situation was intimated to Go Air team at Mumbai, and if required, the complainant asked the Mumbai team to Go Air duty manager at Delhi. In the meantime, the family of the complainant reached out to Go Air customer care to confirm, if the complainant and his wife would be allowed to board flight from Mumbai. The representative confirmed and they had added comment in their records and the complainant and his wife would be allowed to board the same flight. The CD of the recording of conversation with the representative had been proved. After all the conversations, the complainant and his wife got themselves tested again and took a flight to Mumbai in Indigo flight The expenses of the said flight was spent by the complainant. The complainant and his wife reached Mumbai airport around 12:30 a.m. on 23.2.2021. It was very important to note that in Indigo airlines, the complainant and his wife travelled on the very same Covid report which was not accepted by the other party. The complainant and his wife landed at Mumbai Airport in the said Indigo Airlines flight. Upon reaching Mumbai, the complainant and his wife contacted Go Air team at Mumbai airport in order to board the further flight to Port Blair. Surprisingly the complainant and his wife were not allowed to board the said flight to Port Blair again as the complainant and his wife were already marked as “No Show”. In this way the go Air Managers at Delhi Airport and the customer care representative misguided the complainant and put them under more pressure and torture by spending more money and reaching in a different state. Even after all this scenario, the complainant was demanded INR 30,000/- more by the Go Air representatives at Mumbai airport to board the same flight to Port Blair. The complainant requested multiple times to contact the Manager at Delhi Airport, but the requests were not entertained. After all the harassment and disappointment, the complainant and his wife were left with no other option but to stay back in Mumbai and cancel their scheduled Honeymoon trip to Port Blair. The aforesaid act of opposite party amounts to deficiency of service and hence the complaint. The complainant has prayed for directions to the opposite party to:
a) compensate the complainant for all the losses beared by the complainant. The details of all the expenses and losses were as below:
Amount of the expenses (in INR) | Account of Expenses | Bills attached as “Annexure” |
1,00,000/- | Package booked for Port Blair | Annexure B |
50,000/- | Stay in Hotel in Mumbai for 5 days (in lockdown) | Annexure C |
25,000/- | Indigo Air tickets for travel Delhi- Mumbai Delhi | Annexure D |
b) pay Rs. 2,00,000/- as compensation for causing mental agony and harassment .
c) pay Rs. 20,000 /-as litigation expenses.
2. Opposite party put in appearance through counsel and filed written statement wherein Opposite party refuted claim of the complainant and submitted that the complainant had suppressed true and material facts from this Hon’ble form and not approached with clean hands. The complainant had booked two tickets through Travel agency to travel from Delhi to Port Blair via Mumbai on 22and 23rd February, 2021. However, the complainant and his wife were denied to board the said flight on 22.02.2021, since the complainant and his wife were not carrying valid Covid-19 RT-PCR Test report. Whereas, as per the Andaman and Nicobar Administration department of Civil Aviation Order. On 22nd February, 2021 total of 30 passengers were booked on flight G8-336 (DEL-BOM) and further connection on G8-461 BOM-IXZ. Wherein, as per the Andaman and Nicobar Administration department of Civil Aviation Order 25 Passengers had all there RT-PCR valid and fulfilled all criteria required by IXZ Administration. However 05 passengers did not met the requirement and out of 5 passengers who were not having valid RT-PCR test report, 02 passengers moved out of the said flight and planned to move to other date, and other 01 passenger left the airport requesting for refund. However, complainant (Mr. Gaurav Arora & his wife Ms. Chandra Supriya), when this opposite party informed about the issue in there RT-PCR report, they were not ready to accept the same, they were very abusive towards the counter staff and with Dy-APM/APM. The complainant was screaming and blaming the Govt. hospital for the mistake of not entering the swab taken time. The complainant and his wife were having RT-PCR test report of 20th Feb. 2021 for the travel date of 22nd February 2021, departure time 20:05 Hrs. from Delhi. The report did not have the swab collection time and same was mandatory to know if it had crossed 48 hrs. The opposite party requested the complainant to speak to the concerned hospital and get the swab collection time printed on the report and sent it on mail When opposite party and Terminal Manager of Delhi Airport informed the complainant that once they land in Port Blair, the Andaman and NBicobar Administration department of Civil Aviation would check the details of report by entering the SRF-ID in the ICMR Portal, consequently, the complainant and his wife backed out and moved to T3 to get fresh RT-PCR done from dial. Opposite party submitted that RTPCR reports must contain the timing of sample given and report generation, to illustrate it. Opposite party denied rest of the allegations leveled in the complaint and prayed for dismissal of the complaint.
3. The parties led evidence in support of their respective versions.
4. We have heard learned counsel for the parties and have gone through the record on the file.
5. In this case the complaint was filed by the complainant against opposite parties– ICICI Lombard Gen. Insurance co. & Others with the prayer to:
To establish his case the complainant has led in his evidence, Report Status-final, Economy Class, email, ticket confirmed, Confirmation Service Voucher.
On the other hand counsel for the opposite party strongly agitated and
opposed. As per the evidence of the opposite party, photocopies of order dated 23.12.2020, Real time Qualitative RT-PCR detection of 2019-nCOV RNA/COVID-19 RNA.
6. After going through the evidence led by the parties, the Commission is of the opinion that it was the duty of the opposite party – Go Airlines (India) Limited to check the report online. B.K.Hospital is a government hospital and on the report there is telephone number also mentioned. Keeping in view of the above submissions, the Commission is of the opinion that the complaint is allowed. Opposite party is directed to process the claim of the complainant within 30 days from the date of receipt of the copy of order and pay the paid amount to the complainant along with interest @ 6% p.a. from the date of filing of complaint till its realization. The opposite party is also directed to pay Rs.3300/- as compensation on account of mental tension, agony and harassment alongwith Rs.3300/- as litigation expenses to the complainant. Copy of this order be given to the parties concerned free of costs and file be consigned to record room.
Announced on: 21.12.2022 (Amit Arora)
President
District Consumer Disputes
Redressal Commission, Faridabad.
(Mukesh Sharma)
Member
District Consumer Disputes
Redressal Commission, Faridabad.
(Indira Bhadana)
Member
District Consumer Disputes
Redressal Commission, Faridabad.
