OFFICE OF THE DISTRICT CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL FORUM, KAMRUP,GUWAHATI
C.C.87/2013
Present:-
1)Md.Sahadat Hussain, A.J.S. - President
2)Sri U.N.Deka - Member
Shri Mahesh Sharma -Complainant
S/o- Late Ram Dayal Sharma
House No-25, Near Income Tax Colony,
Bangaon,Beltola,Guwahati-28
-vs-
1) Spicejet Ltd., -Opp.parties
Cargo Complex Terminal 1 B,
Indira Gandhi International Airport,
Domestic Terminal,New Delhi-37
2) Mr. Kalanithi Maran ,
Chairman, Spicejet Ltd., Cargo Complex,
Terminal 1 B, Indira Gandhi
International Airport,
Domestic Terminal,New Delhi-37
3) Spicejet Ltd., Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi
International Airport,Guwahati Airport,
Guwahati,-15,District-Kamrup,Assam
Appearance-
Learned advocate Mr. Pramod Kr . Bajaj for the complainant but now for the opp. parties.
Date of argument- 9.12.2015
Date of judgement- 22.12.2015
JUDGMENT
This is a complaint u/s 12 of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986.
1) One Mr. Mahesh Sharma (here in called complainant) by filing a complaint U/S-12 of the Consumer Protection Act,1986 prays to this forum to direct Spice Jet Limited to pay him compensation to the tune of Rs.1,62,750/- with interest at the rate of 12% p.a. along with cost of the proceeding for committing deficiency of service towards him.
2) The complaint was admitted on 23.8.2013 and notices were issued to the opp. parties and they , after receiving the notice, filed the written statement on 3.1.2014 . Thereafter , the complainant filed his affidavit on 15.5.2014, but after filing the written statement the opp. parties defaulted to appear in this forum and to cross-examine the complainant side’s witness although they are given several chances to do so. While the opp. parties failed to take step for cross-examining the complainant side’s witness this forum, vide order dated 11.11.2014, closed the cross examination of PW-1 ,and thereafter the opp. parties are given chances to file their affidavit on 27.1.2015 ,13.3.2015 and 7.5.2015 but in all these dates, the opp. parties remained absent without step, and hence this forum, vide order dated 7.5.2015 , closed the hearing of evidence of opp. parties and fixed the day of 21.7.2015 for filing written argument by the parties, and then the complainant side filed written argument but opp. party side neither appeared on the dates nor filed written argument ; and being compelled this forum , on 9.12.2015 heard the oral argument of Ld. advocate Mr. Pramod Kr. Bajaj for the complainant and deliver the judgment today.
3) The gist of the pleading of the complainant is that the complainant had booked four airline tickets through M/S Abhishek Travels, Beltola (Guwahati,Assam) for travelling from Guwahati to Ahmedabad on 26.8.2012 in Spicejet SG-881 and the same was confirmed vide confirmation ID-250812VCDXT3A4T and paid fare of Rs.32,750/- ( Rupees thirty two thousand seven hundred and fifty ) only against airline tickets from Guwahati to Ahmedabad. That on 26.8.2012, the complainant as well another three passengers reached Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport at Guwahati on time and were waiting for their scheduled flight but to their utter surprise, the staff of the opp. party No-3 disallowed one of the passengers i.e. Shri Bajrang Lal Sharma to board the flight at the time of check –in whereby allowing the other three passengers to board the flight. The complainant protested such act of the staff of the opp. party No-3 and requested them that Shri Bajrang Lal Sharma is suffering from Jaundice and is being treated at S.M. Hospital & Diagnostic Centre at Bongaigaon under the supervision of Dr. M.L . Agarwalla and the concerned doctor referred the patient for higher medication at Ahmedabad, and even then when they were not allowed to board the flight the complainant called up his doctor at Bongaigaon and asked him whether the patient was fit to travel by air or not, and also requested him to mail at airline website a letter certifying the patient health for travelling by air. The staff of the airline checked their website and confirmed the mail of doctor who certified that even if the patient was suffering from Jaundice, he could travel by air as jaundice is not a contagious disease. But adopting the malpractice, the staff of the airline even after going through the mail of the doctor denied boarding to the patient whereby allowing the other passengers to travel which was quite unfair because the other passengers were in order to help the patient for his treatment and were not going for a holiday. Therefore, it was meaningless for the other co-passengers to board the flight without the patient; and thereby OP-3 caused mental and physical harassment to the patient and other co-passengers. That finding no other way , the complainant as well as other 3( three) passengers had to come to Guwahati city and had to stay at the Hotel. The complainant begs to state that the physical condition of Shri Bajrang Lal Sharma deteoriated and became serious due to unwanted and/ or unnecessary mental as well as physical torture and harassment caused to him by the staff of the opp. party No-3 and thereby he had to undergo a complete check up at Pratiksha Hospital at night and unnecessarily spent Rs.10,000/-(Ten thousand) only on his treatment. That on 27.8.2012, i.e. the next day , the complainant had booked 3(three) airline tickets through M/S Abhishek travels , Beltola basistha Road, Opp. Rookman sweet house , Near City Gas Agency, Guwahati -781029 ,Assam from Guwahati to Ahmedabad to be departure on 27.8.2012 through Jet Airways and the same was confirmed and the complainant had paid a sun of Rs.25,500/- (Rupees twenty five thousand and five hundred ) only. The complainant as well as Shri Bajrang Lal Sharma (patient) and Mrs. Santosh Devi Sharma ( wife of the patient) went to Ahmedabad at scheduled departure time from Guwahati Airport without any interruption by the staff of Jet Airways . The staff of the Jet Airways after verifying the medical documents of Shri Bajrang Lal Sharma easily allows him to travel in the aeroplane along with other co-passengers. That the complainant begs to state that the opp. party No-3 had intentionally denied boarding despite of holding confirmed tickets and whereby cancel the tickets and refund a nominal amount of Rs. 6,983/-( Rupees six thousand nine hundred and eighty three) only against a total fare of Rs. 32,750/- (Rupees thirty two thousand seven hundred and fifty ) only which is quite unjustified and that signifies the unfair trade practice by the airline staff of OP No-3 parties and shows the total exploitation of the passengers.That the non availability of the travel facility by the opposite party No-3 on the medical ground inspite of having doctor recommendation was not justified but it was done in an arbitrary manner and that caused mental and physical harassment to the complainant and their relatives. Besides incurring financial loss paying extra amount in order to get accommodated in other flight, mental torture was caused to them. Not allowing a Jaundice patient to travel in their flight after production of doctor’s certificate on the Scheduled date amounts to deficiency of service as defined U/S 2(1) (g) of Consumer Protection Act,1986 . For such act, the complainant side had to suffer from mental agony as well as to suffer financial loss . So he is entitled to get Rs.32,750/- in the head of air fare ,Rs.30,000/- in the head of expenditure made in staying at Guwahati and Rs.1,00,000 as compensation for causing harassment and mental agony to him.
4) The gist of the pleading of the opp. party is that the complainant booked four tickets on 28.2.2012 for travel from Guwahati to Ahmedabad on 26.8.2012 and one of the passengers , Sri Bajrang Lal Sharma was medically unfit having he was suffering from Hepatitis for previous few months who showed medical report / certificate dated 3.3.2012 and the level of Billirubin was 14.7(normal between 0.3 to 1.1) and his appearance looked very pale and fragile and was not even able to stand and speak properly and was constantly shivering, and he needed support of two persons to stand up properly ,and the complainant failed to show medical fitness certificate as to ability to travel in the flight, and the pressure in the flight is always very high than the pressure on the earth and in such situation if he was allowed to travel, an emergent situation would had happened in the aircraft and this situation was properly explained to the complainant, and the complainant and the patient properly understood that and did not insist further. In such situation, Mr. Bajrang Lal Sharma was not allowed to board but other three passengers were allowed to board the aircraft, but they refused to board. But at 15.08 hours the said passengers came to the counter and reported that they procured medical certificate and it was found that the medical certificate was procured without examining the patient and certificate was without signature of the patient and as such the said certificate was contrary to the Rules and Regulations of the Indian Medical Association. Moreover, the passengers violated the mandatory direction of DGCA by not reporting at the counter atleast 45 minutes before the Scheduled time of departure of the aircraft. The passenger Bajrang Lal Sharma was entitled to refund after deduction of statutory charges and accordingly Rs.7,953 /- was refunded to agency counter wherefrom , the tickets were booked and while other three passengers did not board the aircraft wilfully , they were declared “Non Show” for the flight and their ticket’s amount had been forfeited . The complainant is not entitled to get any relief as prayed and the complaint is liable to be dismissed.
5) We have pursued the argument of Ld. advocate Mr. Pramod Kr. Bajaj who has forwarded argument on behalf of the complainant. We have also perused the pleading of both the parties.
We have found that it is both side’s admitted fact that on 25-8-2012 the complainant purchased four airline tickets through M/S Abhishek Travels , Beltola (Guwahati) for travelling from Guwahati to Ahmedabad on 26-8-2012 through Spice Jet S.G.881 paying fare of Rs.32,750/- in total and the same was confirmed vide Confirmation ID No-250812VCDXT3A4T and Exhibit 1 is the said tickets and the passengers were Mr. Mahesh Sharma( the complainant), Mr. B L Sharma, Mrs S D Sharma and Mr. Bajrang Lal Sharma ,and the departure time was 15:35 Hrs., and all of them went to counter of Spice Jet at Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi Airport on scheduled day and at the time of check in ,but the staff of OP No-3 disallowed Mr.Bajrang Lal Sharma to board the flight allowing other three passengers to board the flight and the reason of disallowing Mr.Bajrang Lal Sharma to board was that he was suffering from Jaundice and on being Bajrang Lal Sharma disallowed other three also abstained themselves from boarding the flight.
Now, moot question is that whether the health condition of Bajrang Lal Sharma was too serious which disentitled him to Board the scheduled flight. In this respect the complainant side’s plea is that Sri Bajrang Lal Sharma was suffering of jaundice who had been under treatment of Dr.M. L .Agarwalla at S M Hospital and Diagnostic Centre, Bongaigaon and he was referred for higher medication at Ahmedabad and when in spite of request , the staff of OP No-3 disallowed him to board the flight , the complainant called upon the doctor of Bongaigaon to send a health certificate relating to Bajrang Lal Sharma through the website of OP No-3 and he also mailed the said certificate to OP No-3 certifying that Mr.Bajrang Lal Sharma could travel by air although he was suffering from Jaundice having jaundice is not a contagious desease, but the staff of OP No-3 , evenafter going through the mail of the doctor , denied to allow Sri B. L. Sharma to board the flight. The complainant filing evidence as PW-1 stating the same thing.
The second admitted fact that on the Scheduled dated all four persons went to L.G.B. Airport and went to the counter of Spice Jet counter to board the flight No-SG 881 and Mr. Bajrang Lal Sharma was suffering from Jaundice and other three passengers came with him to take him to Ahmedabad for better treatment on advice of Dr. M.L.Agarwalla of S.M .Hospital and diagnostic Centre at Bongaigaon,but the ground staff of Opp. parties disallowed him to board the flight alleging that he was not in fit health to do air journey but allowed other three to board and when Bajrang Lal Sharma was disallowed,other three also refused to board and the flight had taken off showing them absent.
6) Regarding ill health of Bajrang Lal Sharma, the complainant states that when Bajrang Lal Sharma was not allowed to board on health ground, he requested the doctor of Bongaigaon who was treating Bajrang Lal Sharma to send certificate to the opp. parties through their website as to whether B.L.Sharma is fit to do air journey, and accordingly he sent a certificate through E-mail to the opp.party certifying that B.L.Sharma is fit to do air journey with adding that although B.L.Sharma was suffering from Jaundice he could travel by air as Jaundice is not a contagious disease ,and the ground staff of opp. parties received the said certificate through their website and denied to give permission to B.L.Sharma to board; and then being compelled he and other two passengers , who were accompanying him to help him in his treatment, refused to board seeing futility of their journey. In this respect the pleading of the opp. parties is that B.L.Sharma was suffering from Hepatitis B and his bilirubin percentage was 14.7 (normal limit .3 to 1.1) and he needed support of two persons to stand up and they asked the complainant to bring flying fitness certificate from his doctor and told further that the pressure of the aircraft is higher than pressure in the earth and in such health condition of the patient , if he is allowed to board it might cause emergent situation in the craft and so he cannot be allowed to board and the complainant side understood the situation and did not insist any further ; but at about 15:08 hours, the passengers again came to the counter and produced the medical certificate but that certificate seems issued without medical examination of the patient and it did not bear the signature of the patient and as such said medical certificate was contrary to the Rules and Regulations of Indian Medical Association . Their further plea is that they besides the health ground of B.L.Sharma ,refused to issue boarding pass to the passengers inasmuch as they violated the mandatory directions of the DGCA of not reporting at the counter at least 45 minutes before the Scheduled time of departure. The complainant, by filing affidavit , narrates the same story and also specifically states that when the ground staff of the opp. party on the Scheduled day refused to allow Mr.B.L.Sharma to board the flight and he requested Dr. M.L.Agarwalla of Bongaigaon who was treating Mr. B.L .Sharma and referring him to Ahmedabad for better treatment , to send a medical fitness certificate as to whether Mr.B.L.Sharma is fit to pursue air-journey and then the latter sent the certificate through E-mail certifying that Mr.B.L.Sharma is fit to pursue air-journey, and he then produced the said certificate and the staff of opp.parties has gone through that certificate and the mail of the doctor, M.L.Agarwalla but again refused to allow B.L.Sharma to board the flight.
It is seen that the opp. parties neither cross-examined PW-1 nor file their evidence.
7) After perusal of the written statement of the opp. parties,it transpires to us that they admit that the complainant produced the medical certificate as to ability of Bajrang Lal Sharma to do air journey but they rejected the said medical certificate on the grounds that there were no signature of the patient and that was issued without examining the patient. It is found that Dr. M.L.Agarwalla of Bongaigaon was treating Bajrang Lal Sharma at Bongaigaon and he himself referred Bajrang Lal Sharma for better treatment. Hence, we must hold that none but Dr. M. L. Agarwalla knew health condition of B. L. Sharma well and hence he sent the said certificate to the opp. party through E-mail , therefore question of further examination of the patient and procuring his signature on the said certificate can not arise at all . So,we hold that the said certificate was a genuine certificate and that was sent to the opp. party in lawful way. In such premises, we hold that the ground staff of opp. parties at L.G.B.Airport on that day whimsically refused to accept that certificate.
The opp.party sides another plea is that then said passengers failed to arrive the airport before 45 minutes of Scheduled time of departure of the said flight as per Rule and Regulations and on that count also they were debarred from boarding the flight. From pleading of both the parties, it transpires that all four passengers arrived the counter of the opp. parties flight in due time and their appearance was accepted and in no occasion , the ground staff of the opp. parties stated to them that they had not arrived the airport before 45 minutes of Scheduled departure, nor the opp. parties adduced evidence to that effect. So, for that count, we hold that this plea of the opp. parties stands not proved. Summarizing the discussion of these two points, we hold that the plea of the complainant side that they had arrived the airport within allowable period and when the ground staff of the opp. party refused to allow Bajrang Lal Sharma to board the flight for want of certificate as to his ability to pursue air journey, they requested his doctor ,Dr.M.L.Agarwalla of Bongaigaon to send a certificate to effect whether he is able to persue air journey to the opp. party through E-mail in the website of the opp. party and the doctor did so and the ground staff of opp. parties received that but whimsically rejected it and refused to allow B.L.Sharma to board the flight, is established beyond doubt. So, we hold that the ground staffs of the opp. parties , on that day, without any just cause , disallowed B.L.Sharma to board the said flight . 2ndly , it is also found that other three persons including the complainant are found accompanying Bajrang Lal Sharma to help him in his treatment at Ahmedabad. Hence while Bajrang Lal Sharma was disallowed to board the flight it seemed that their journey to Ahmedabad by that flight had no meaning. Therefore , we hold that their refusal to pursue the said journey is not a voluntary refusal , but the activities of the ground staff of the opp. parties are the cause of such refusal and hence such activities of the ground staffs of the opp. parties is an act of deficiency of service towards the complainant, and by that deficiency of service the opp. party caused harassment to them as well as put them in mental agony, for which the opp. parties are liable to compensate complainant properly.
8) It is also both sides’ admitted fact that on the next day(27-8-2012) the complainant and other three passengers including Bajrang Lal Sharma went to Ahmedabad in the flight of JetLite flight No-JetLite(SL)-4392 after paying ticket charge of Rs.25,500/-( Twenty five thousand five hundred) only . This fact is also proved by the documents ranging from Ext.4(1) to 4(4) .Another admitted is that all of them had to stay one day at Guwahati bearing the cost from their own purse.
9) From evidence of PW-1, it is also proved that the complainant side purchased the tickets for journey to Ahmedabad in the flight of the opp. parties paying charge of Rsa.32,750/-( Thirty two thousand seven hundred and fifty )only and out of that amount, the opp. parties returned only Rs.6,983/-(Six thousand nine hundred and eighty three)only to the complainant . As, for the deficiency of service of the opp. parties , the complainant side had to leave said flight on that day, the opp. parties are liable to refund the remaining amount i.e. Rs.25,767/-( Twenty five thousand seven hundred and sixty seven )only to the complainant. They are also liable to pay atleast Rs.8,000/-(Eight thousand)only to the complainant side as a cost of their overstay at Guwahati. They are also liable to pay atleast Rs.10,000/-(Ten thousand) only to the complainant for causing harassment to the complainant and his other passengers, and putting them in mental agony. They are also liable to pay another amount of Rs.10,000/-(Ten thousand) only as cost of proceedings.
10) Because of what has been discussed as above, the complaint is allowed on contest and accordingly the opp. parties ( Spicejet Ltd.) are directed to pay Rs.25,767/-(Twenty five thousand seven hundred and sixty seven )only to the complainant as remaining value of the tickets purchased from them, and also to pay him Rs.8,000/-(Eight thousand)only as cost of overstay of the complainant and his co-passengers at Guwahati, Rs.10,000/-(ten thousand) only for causing harassment and mental agony to the complainant and his co-passengers as well as Rs.10,000/- as cost of the proceeding . They are directed to pay the amounts within three months in default of which it shall carry interest at the rate of 12%p.a. from this day.
Given under our hands and seal of this forum on this day 22nd December, 2015.
Free copies of judgment be delivered to the parties.
(Md.S.Hussain)
President
(Mr.U.N.Deka)
Member
