Haryana

Karnal

CC/243/2019

Mohit Chaudhary - Complainant(s)

Versus

InterGlobe Aviation Limited - Opp.Party(s)

Kailash Chander Bajaj

10 Dec 2019

ORDER

BEFORE THE DISTRICT CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL FORUM KARNAL.

 

                                                          Complaint No. 243 of 2019

                                                          Date of instt. 02.05.2019

                                                          Date of Decision 10.12.2019

 

Mohit Chaudhary son of Shri Kailash Chaudhary resident of House no.1298, Sector 13, Urban Estate, Karnal (Haryana) 132001.

 

                                                                         …….Complainant

                                        Versus

1. InterGlobe Aviation Limited Registered Office Central Wing, Ground Floor, Thapar House, 124 Janpath, New Delhi-110001.

2. Mr. Sanjeev Ramdas Executive Vice President Consumer Service Goindigo/ Indigo Registered Office Central Wing, Ground floor, Thapar House, 124 Janpath, New Delhi-110001.

3. Managing Director Goindigo/IndiGo Corporate Offce Level 1, Tower C, Global Business Park, Gurgaon (Gurugram)-122002 Haryana, India.

4. Managing Director Head Office Make My Trip India Pvt. Ltd. DLF Building no.5 Tower B DLF Cyber City, DLF Phase 2 Sector 24, Gurugram (Gurgaon) Haryana 122002, India.

 

                                                                        …..Opposite Party.

 

           Complaint u/s 12 of the Consumer Protection Act. 

 

Before    Sh. Jaswant Singh……President. 

      Sh.Vineet Kaushik ………..Member

                Dr. Rekha Chaudhary…….Member

 

 Present:  Shri Kailash Chander Advocate for complainant.

                  Shri Manoj Gupta Advocate for OPs no.1 to 3.

                  Shri Apar Singh Advocate for OP no.4.

 

                   (Jaswant Singh President)

ORDER:                    

 

                        This complaint has been filed by the complainant u/s 12 of the Consumer Protection Act 1986 on the averments that complainant is lawyer by profession. He is practicing at Hon’ble Punjab and Haryana High Court, at various District Courts of Punjab and Haryana and also preparing for Judicial Service Examinations. OPs no.1 to 3 is the aviation company providing the airlines services throughout India. OP no.4 is the online portal for booking airlines tickets, making hotel reservations and many other online services. On 14.02.2019, complainant made a domestic flight booking round trip Delhi to Indore & Indore to Delhi through online portal mobile application of OP no.4 for which he opted services offered by the airlines “Indigo” i.e. OPs no.1 to 3 booked the flight. The details are as under:-

Flight: Delhi (DEL) to Indore (IDR), Booking reference CDKNSP, Date of booking, 14^th February, 2019, Payment Status: Approved, Date of Arrival 21^st February, 2019 and Departure Time 17.00 hours.

Flight: Indore (IDR) to Delhi (DEL), booking reference HD4SPS, Date of Booking 14^th February, 2019, Payment status approved, Date of travel 23 February, 2019 and departure time 16.55 hrs.

The complainant has to take Madhya Pradesh Judicial Service Exam on 23.02.2019 for which he booked the abovesaid flights to travel. Payment was made through Net Banking from the savings account of State Bank of India maintained by the complainant at Karnal. The payment was made from Karnal which was duly accepted and booking status was shown as approved. The complainant has availed the service of OPs no.1 to 3 and successfully travelled from Delhi to Indore on 21.02.2019 but to his utter surprise that on 22.02.2019 he received a SMS Text message from OPs regarding cancellation of flight. The said SMS text read as follows:

        “IndiGo: Dear IndiGo Passenger: Your IndiGo flight 6E 5490 from IDR to DEL on 23.02.2019 is cancelled. Reasons: Flight is cancelled due to operational reasons. Inconvenience is regretted. For assistance call 9910383838.”

The cancellation of flight by the OPs no.1 to 3, left the complainant shocked and stunned as he has to take his Judicial Service Exam next day which needs concentration and in depth study. But due to the conduct of OPs no.1 to 3, he instead focusing on his studies has to beat the bushes to make other arrangement for getting back to Delhi on 23.02.2019. Complainant contacted the OPs, firstly official of the OPs flatly refused to entertain any of the requests made by the complainant but on his consistent request the executive agreed to make substitute arrangement for the complainant for getting back to Delhi. The flight offered to complainant was on 23.02.2019 at about 9.45 hrs in the morning. It was brought to the notice to the executive of OPs no.1 to 3 that complainant has to take the Judicial Service Competitive Exam on 23.09.2019 from 10.00 hrs to 12.00hrs. The executive shows helplessness and did not offer me any other flight. Again on persistent requests their executive offered the next day i.e. 24.02.2019 flight to Delhi which was scheduled at 9.45 hrs. Left no other option in that situation complainant has to accept the flight for 24.02.2019 at 9.45 hrs. scheduled to Delhi from Indore and the confirmation mail was sent by the executive on the registered email id of the complainant. Complainant also requested the executive of OPs no.1 to 3 to make layover arrangements i.e. for his stay including the food and other incidental expenses due to the deficiency in service and unfair trade practice on their part. But their executive flatly refused to pay any heed to any of the request made by the complainant. Due to this sudden cancellation and refusal on the part of the OPs no.1 to 3 to make layover arrangements for stay, food and other incidental expenses, complainant has to look for some hotel to stay for one more day in Indore which causes great mental pain, agony and harassment to him. He is a practicing lawyer and his meetings were scheduled for 24.02.2019 morning with clients for the litigation purposes, which he was unable to attend. In this way there was deficiency in service on the part of the OPs. Hence complainant filed the present complaint.

2.             Notice of the complaint was given to the OPs, OPs no.1 to 3 appeared and filed written version raising preliminary objections with regard to maintainability; jurisdiction; mis-joinder and non-joinder of necessary parties and concealment of true and material facts. On merits, it is pleaded that the IndiGo Flight no.6E-5409 was cancelled on account of last minute unavoidable operational reasons, which was a circumstance completely beyond the control of InterGlobe Aviation Limited and which was an unforeseen circumstances. Further, the complainant has concealed the material fact that the staff of InterGlobe Aviation Limited provided him the option of an alternative flight or a full refund and the complainant willingly and voluntarily opted to travel on board an alternative flight being IndiGo Flight no.6E-509 from Indore to Delhi on 24.02.2019 and successfully reached Delhi on 24.02.2019. Further, InterGlobe Aviation Limited has acted strictly in compliance with the applicable laws and the binding terms of the contract between the complainant and InterGlobe Aviation Limited and discharged its obligations. There is no deficiency in service on the part of the OPs no.1 to 3. All other allegations made in the complaint have been denied and prayed for dismissal of the complaint.

3.             OP no.4 in his reply stated that OP no.4 is only a facilitator for booking the confirmed air tickets/hotel bookings on behalf of its customers with the concerned service providers. OP no.4 upon the request received from its customer, forward the same to the concerned Airlines/service providers and upon receiving the confirmation from concerned service providers the booking ID is generated and confirmed bookings/tickets is shared with the Customer. It is further stated that OP no.4 is not responsible or liable for any re-schedule or change of routes, timings of the Flights. Once the confirmed tickets are issued to the customer, the OP is discharged from its obligations and duties qua the said booking. The OP no.4 in order to further assist its valuable customers, duly mentions the complete respective details of the flights on its web portal and same is clearly visible to the intended travelers at the time of booking the tickets. It is further stated that the Intended traveler at the time of booking of the tickets agrees that OP no.4 being an agent for facilitating the booking services shall not be responsible for any changes in the timings, schedules, routes or cancellation made by the concerned airlines, the same is the sole prerogative of the said Airlines. There is no deficiency in service on the part of the OP no.4 and prayed for dismissal of the complaint.

4.             Complainant tendered into evidence his affidavit Ex.CW1/A and documents Ex.C1 to Ex.C8 and closed the evidence on 24.09.2019.

5.             On the other hand OPs no.1 to 3 tendered into evidence affidavit of Rahul Kumar Ex.OP1/A and documents Ex.OP1 to Ex.OP6 and closed the evidence on 31.10.2019.

6.             OP no.4 tendered into evidence affidavit of Ekank Mehra Ex.OP2/A and documents Ex.OP7 to Ex.OP9 and closed the evidence on 25.11.2019.

7.             We have appraised the evidence on record, the material circumstances of the case and the arguments advanced by the learned counsel for the parties.

8.             The case of the complainant, in brief, is that he booked a domestic flight booking round trip Delhi to Indore & Indore to Delhi through online portal mobile application of OP no.4 for which he opted services offered by the airlines “Indigo” i.e. OPs no.1 to 3 booked the flight. The complainant has to take Madhya Pradesh Judicial Service Exam on 23.02.2019 for which he booked the flights to travel. Payment was made through Net Banking from the savings account of State Bank of India maintained by the complainant at Karnal. The payment was made from Karnal which was duly accepted and booking status was shown as approved. The complainant has availed the service of OPs no.1 to 3 and successfully travelled from Delhi to Indore on 21.02.2019 but to his utter surprise that on 22.02.2019 he received a SMS Text message from OPs regarding cancellation of flight. He has to take his Judicial Service Exam next day which needs concentration and in depth study. But due to the conduct of OPs no.1 to 3, he instead focusing on his studies has to beat the bushes to make other arrangement for getting back to Delhi on 23.02.2019. Complainant contacted the OPs, firstly official of the OPs flatly refused to entertain any of the requests made by the complainant but on his consistent request the executive agreed to make substitute arrangement for the complainant for getting back to Delhi.. Complainant also requested the executive of OPs no.1 to 3 to make layover arrangements i.e. for his stay including the food and other incidental expenses due to the deficiency in service and unfair trade practice on their part. But their executive flatly refused to pay any heed to any of the request made by the complainant. Due to this sudden cancellation and refusal on the part of the OPs no.1 to 3 to make layover arrangements for stay, food and other incidental expenses, complainant has to look for some hotel to stay for one more day in Indore which causes great mental pain, agony and harassment to him. He is a practicing lawyer and his meetings were scheduled for 24.02.2019 morning with clients for the litigation purposes, which he was unable to attend.

9.             On the other hand, the case of the OPs no.1 to 3 is that the IndiGo Flight no.6E-5409 was cancelled on account of last minute unavoidable operational reasons, which was a circumstance completely beyond the control of InterGlobe Aviation Limited and which was an unforeseen circumstance. Further, the complainant has concealed the material fact that the staff of InterGlobe Aviation Limited provided him the option of an alternative flight or a full refund and the complainant willingly and voluntarily opted to travel on board an alternative flight being IndiGo Flight no.6E-509 from Indore to Delhi on 24.02.2019 and successfully reached Delhi on 24.02.2019. Further, InterGlobe Aviation Limited has acted strictly in compliance with the applicable laws and the binding terms of the contract between the complainant and InterGlobe Aviation Limited and discharged its obligations.

10.            The case of the OP no.4 is that OP no.4 is only a facilitator for booking the confirmed air tickets/hotel bookings on behalf of its customers with the concerned service providers. OP no.4 upon the request received from its customer, forward the same to the concerned Airlines/service providers and upon receiving the confirmation from concerned service providers the booking ID is generated and confirmed bookings/tickets is shared with the Customer. OP no.4 is not responsible or liable for any re-schedule or change of routes, timings of the Flights. Once the confirmed tickets are issued to the customer, the OP is discharged from its obligations and duties qua the said booking. The OP no.4 in order to further assist its valuable customers, duly mentions the complete respective details of the flights on its web portal and same is clearly visible to the intended travellers at the time of booking the tickets.

11.            Admittedly, the schedule of the complainant to return at Karnal was on 23.02.2019. The complainant had received a message on 22.02.2019 with regard to cancellation of the flight. The complainant had gone to Indore for appearing in Judiciary exam. On seeing the message, complainant became shocked and he did not properly attend the exam because of tension. No doubt OPs had arranged the flight for the complainant on 24.02.2019 from Indore to Karnal and complainant availed the said facility. It was the duty of the OP to provide the accommodation and pay the other expenses for the stay night on 23.02.2019 till the arrival of the flight but OPs did not provide such facility to complainant and due to that complainant was being harassed at the  hands of the OPs. As complainant had not booked the hotel for 23.02.2019  as he was prepared to leave Indore as per schedule i.e. on 23.02.2019. The complainant is a practicing lawyer in Punjab and Haryana High Court, as per the complainant due to cancellation of the flight and staying in Indore for one more than one, he could not attend the meetings which was fixed on 24.02.2019 at Panchkula, hence he suffered financial loss for not attending the said meetings.  On the other hand, learned counsel for the OPs argued that the complainant was properly compensated by the OPs and there is no deficiency in service on the part of the OPs and he prayed for dismissal of the complaint with cost.

12.            In view of the above facts and circumstances of the case, we are of the considered view that complainant is mentally and physically harassed by the OPs no.1 to 3, for which he is liable for compensation and other expenses occurred by him during the excess stayed in Indore.

13.            Thus, as a sequel to abovesaid discussion, we allow the present complaint and direct the OPs no.1 to 3 to pay Rs.5000/- to the complainant for staying one more night in Indore. We further direct the OPs no.1 to 3 to pay Rs.10,000/- to the complainant on account of mental agony and harassment and Rs.5500/- towards litigation expense. The entire amount be paid by the OP to the complainant within the period of 30 days from the date of receipt of copy of this order failing which the abovesaid amount will carry interest @ 9% per annum till realization. The parties concerned be communicated of the order accordingly and the file be consigned to the record room after due compliance.

Announced:

Dated: 10.12.2019                                                                      

                                                                  President,

                                                              District Consumer Disputes

                                                              Redressal Forum, Karnal.

 

               

        (Vineet Kaushik)              (Dr. Rekha Chaudhary)

            Member                               Member