Haryana

Ambala

CC/29/2023

ANAND PARKASH BHATIA. - Complainant(s)

Versus

INTER GLOBE AVIATION LTD.(INDIGO) - Opp.Party(s)

JAIPAL SINGH

17 Sep 2024

ORDER

BEFORE THE DISTRICT CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL COMMISSION, AMBALA.

Anand Parkash Bhatia aged about 43 years s/o Shri Ram Bhatia, R/o H.No.16, Milap Nagar, Near Manav Chowk, Ambala City (Mb.No.098135-77277)

          ……. Complainant

                                                Versus

1. Inter Globe Aviation Limited ("IndiGo"), # Level-2 Tower-C, Global Business Park, M.G.Road, Gurgaon, Haryana-122 002, INDIA, Indigo Contact No. +91-98889-98380, through its' Authorized Signatory.
2. Inter Globe Aviation Limited ("IndiGo"), Upper Ground Floor, Thapar House, Gate No.02, Western Wing, 124, Janpath New Delhi-110 001, INDIA, through its' Authorized Signatory.
3. Inter Globe Aviation Limited ("IndiGo"), Level-1, Tower-C, Global Business Park, Mehrauli, Gurgaon Road, Gurugram-122 002, Haryana- INDIA, through its' Authorized Signatory.

                                                                                   ….….  Opposite parties

Before:          Smt. Neena Sandhu, President.

                        Smt. Ruby Sharma, Member,

            Shri Vinod Kumar Sharma, Member.           

Present:        Shri Jai Pal Singh Chauhan, Advocate, counsel for the complainant.

                      Shri Rajiv Sachdeva, Advocate, for counsel for OPs.

 Order:        Smt. Neena Sandhu, President.

                   Complainant has filed this complaint under Section 35 of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Act’) against the Opposite Parties (hereinafter referred to as ‘OPs’) praying for issuance of following directions to them:-

1.  To either deliver the booked Attachi containing the goods of Beauty Parlour, Boot, Perfume, Clothes etc. of the complainant or to pay the value of the goods booked in the flight amounting to  Rs.1,03,000/-,  which includes the cost of booked Attachi, to the complainant;
2. To pay interest @ 18% per annum on the amount of Rs.1,03,000/-, i.e the value of the lost goods, with effect from the date of loss i.e. 28.08.2022, till the date of payment of the amount, to the complainant;
3. To pay Rs.2,00,000/- on account of compensation for causing deficiency in services and unfair trade practice and harassment, mental torture and agony to the complainant,
4. To pay cost of litigation of Rs.33,000/-.
5. Grant any other relief, which this Hon'ble Commission may deems fit.

2.             Brief facts of the case are that the complainant has been working with Beauty Garage India Private Limited for the last more than 1½ years and presently he is posted as a National Technical Head at Beauty Garage Professional Plot No.17, Road no marol Industrial Area, Behind Gold-Finch Hotel Midc-Andheri-East. Mumbai Office of the complainant i.e. Beauty Garage India Private Limited had got confirmed Air Ticket for the complainant for 28.08.2022 from Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport to Chandigarh Airport vide Flight 6E 6616 PNR-YK17UY, E-Ticket No. YK17UK, Seat-24B, having Boarding Time-1200 hrs, Services- XSAT, Seq-0130 and the departure time of the Flight was 12:45 hrs and arrival time was 15:20 hrs. The complainant booked Attachi having worth of Rs.8,000/- and product of Beauty Parlour of Beauty Garage India Private Limited Company of worth Rs.55,000/- were kept in the Attachi and also the personal goods including Boot, Perfume, Personal Clothes, approximately worth Rs.40,000/- were also kept by the complainant in the said booked Attachi and the same was in the physical possession of the team of InterGlobe Aviation Limited ("IndiGo") and the team disclosed to the complainant that at the time of arriving the Flight, the complainant will be delivered his booked Attachi intact. After reaching at Chandigarh Airport at about 15:20 hrs, the aforesaid booked Attachi was not delivered by the Indigo Team. Complainant repeatedly requested the OPs to deliver his booked Attachi containing the product of Beauty Parlour of Beauty Carriage Private India Limited Company worth Rs.55,000/- and also the personal goods including Boot, Perfume, Personal Clothes of approximately worth Rs.40,000/-, besides the cost of Attachi of worth Rs.8,000/-; and the total cost in all is Rs.1,03,000/-; but the Team of the OPs at that time assured and promised the complainant that after tracing the said booked Attachi, they will inform him for taking the delivery of the same. However, the OPs had not informed the complainant about the said booked Attachi and under the constrained circumstances, he had to send several mails to the OPs at different places and requested them to trace the booked Attachi and delivered the same to him, but to no avail. The complainant tried to contact the OPs on telephone afterwards; but the representatives of InterGlobe Aviation Limited ("IndiGo") initially picked up his phone call and kept assuring for early delivery of the said booked Attachi to the complainant, but afterwards, they started ignoring and stopped picking up his phone call. The complainant served upon a legal notice dated 10.11.2022, to the OPs, calling upon them to deliver the booked Attachi containing the goods of Beauty Parlour being product of Company, besides Boot, Perfume, Personal Clothes etc. to the complainant; or to make the payment of total lost goods in booked Flight amounting to Rs. 1,03,000/-, which includes the cost of booked Attachi; and also to pay compensation amounting to Rs.2,00,000/- for causing mental tension, harassment, agony to the complainant and alongwith interest @ 18% per annum from the date of due delivery of goods i.e. from 28.08.2022 till the date of entire payment. The said legal notice was duly received by the OPs but despite receipt of notice, the same remained deaf-ears for the OPs. Hence this complaint.
3.           Upon notice, the  OPs  appeared and filed written version wherein they raised preliminary objections to the effect that the allegations made by the complainant in the captioned complaint are absolutely baseless, fallacious and bear no truth; the complainant has concealed material facts and has failed to place on record and supply to the OPs any documents to substantiate the alleged claim accrued to it on account of mental harassment and agony; the compensation sought is required to be substantiated by leading substantial documentary proof whilst also establishing that the complainant has taken the necessary steps to mitigate its losses; it is a settled law that bald averments bereft of any documentary proof cannot entitle a person to claim damage; the services availed by the complainant were purely for business purposes booked by his company for the purpose of carriage of goods, therefore the complainant cannot fall within the ambit of "consumer" under the provision of this Act etc. On merits, it has been stated that after receiving a complaint from the complainant regarding loss of luggage, on 29.08.2022, the CBTU team of the OPs started the investigation with the airport teams, however, during the investigation, it was found that the baggage was loaded and tailed from the Kolkata Airport but was not received at the Chandigarh Airport. Even after cross checking the CCTV footage and nothing suspicious was found as there was no extra pick up and nothing was left behind on belt. Since the tracing period was over on 03.09.2022, the Customer Relations Team of the OPs vide Email dated 11.09.2022 to the registered Email ID of the complainant henkel.anand@gmail.com offered the complainant compensation of INR 5250 and stated that "We would like to inform you that as per Conditions of Carriage ("COC"), a case of misplaced/damaged baggage (such as yours) is governed by the COC of IndiGo. The COC is in the nature of a binding contract between the airline and the passenger who chooses to fly with it. Therefore, every passenger who chooses to fly with IndiGo agrees to be bound by its conditions of carriage. The baggage rules in the COC state that in the case of lost/damaged baggage, IndiGo's liability for any loss or damage to Baggage is limited to INR 350 per kg." However, in order to proceed with the offered compensation, the complainant was asked to share account details to enable the OPs to transfer the said amount through NEFT by filling out the attached NEFT form. On 11.09.2022, the complainant responded and stated that he was not satisfied with the offered compensation, in response, the Custom Relations team, vide Email dated 18.09.2022, offered an additional travel voucher worth INR 4916, however, the complainant again asked for compensation for total loss of Rs. 80,000/-. On 26.09.2022, the Custom Relations team again reiterated the aforesaid, but the complainant was not satisfied with offered compensation and travel voucher as well. Vide Email dated 30.09.2022, the Customer Relations team again insisted on offered compensation and the voucher detail was sent to the registered Email ID of complainant. The complainant did not share the NEFT details as requested by the Customer Relations team. The OPs have duly complied with the provisions laid down in Indigo CoC which contains that "It is clarified that IndiGo will not be liable for any loss, delay or damage arising from IndiGo's compliance with applicable laws or from a Customer's failure to comply with the same. In any event. IndiGo's liability shall not exceed the amount of proven damages under any circumstances". It is further stated that the OPs have made their best possible efforts to locate and trace the baggage of complainant but the baggage could not be found and compensation in sum of INR 5250 was duly offered to the complainant and as a goodwill gesture, even travel voucher of INR 4916 was also offered but complainant refused to accept the same. Rest of the averments of the complainant were denied by the OPs and prayed for dismissal of the present complaint with costs.
4.           Complainant tendered his affidavit as Annexure CW1/A alongwith documents as Annexure C-1 to C-16 and closed the evidence of the complainant. On the other hand, learned counsel for the OPs tendered affidavit of Kartik Bajpai, Authorized Representative of the OPs Company-Inter Globe Aviation Limited as Annexure RX alongwith documents Annexure OPs/1 to OPs/5 and closed the evidence on behalf of the OPs.
5.           We have heard the learned counsel for the parties and have also carefully gone through the case file.
6.           Learned counsel for the complainant submitted that by not paying the entire amount of articles kept in the luggage, which got lost by the OPs, the OPs have indulged into deficiency in providing service, negligence and also adopted unfair trade practice. 
7.           On the contrary, the learned counsel for the OPs submitted that since the tracing period was over on 03.09.2022, the Customer Relations Team of the OPs vide Email dated 11.09.2022 through registered Email ID of the complainant
8.           The only short question which needs to be decided by this Commission is whether the complainant is entitled to get an amount of Rs.1,03,000/- which he alleges to be the cost of the articles i.e. suitcase, beauty parlour products, including boot, perfume, personal clothes, kept in the lost luggage or not. It may be stated here that there is nothing on record to prove that any such articles costing Rs.1,03,000/- were ever brought to the knowledge of the OPs by the complainant at the time of booking the said air tickets/luggage  or that the same were got insured by the complainant before booking the luggage alongwith air tickets purchased for his journey in the OP Airlines even  no bills qua purchase of the said articles have been brought on record by the complainant. Under these circumstances, in the absence of any evidence, it cannot be presumed that all the articles being claimed by the complainant were kept in the lost luggage. However, at the same time, this Commission also cannot simply ignore the fact that there was a huge deficiency in service on the part of the OPs, in not taking care of the luggage of the complainant.
9.           It is also coming out from record that the OPs had offered compensation to the tune of Rs.5250/- (INR 350 per kg X 15 KG), in accordance with terms No.17.3 Damaged delayed or lost checked-in-Baggage, as per Conditions of Carriage (COC), Annexure OP-5. Over and above this, the OPs had also offered travel voucher of Rs.4916/- as a good will gesture. Under these circumstances, we are of the considered view that if we direct the OPs to honour both the offers made and also to compensate the complainant for the mental agony & physical harassment caused to the complainant, that will meet the ends of justice.
10.           In view of the aforesaid discussion, we hereby partly allow the present complaint and direct the OPs, in the following manner:-
    1. To pay Rs.5250/- and also give travel voucher of Rs.4916/- to the complainant
    2. To pay Rs.7,000/-, as compensation for the mental agony and physical harassment suffered by the complainant.
    3. To pay Rs.3,000/-, as litigation expenses.    

              The OPs are further directed to comply with the aforesaid directions within the period of 45 days, from the date of receipt of the certified copy of the order, failing which the OPs shall pay interest @ 8% per annum on the awarded amount, from the date of default, till realization. Certified copy of this order be supplied to the parties concerned, forthwith, free of cost as permissible under Rules. File be indexed and consigned to the Record Room.

 Announced:- 17.09.2024