Per Shri Pradeep G. Kadu, Hon’ble President

1)                This is a consumer complaint filed the Complainants hereinabove under Section 35 of Consumer Protection Act, 2019 and the briefly stated facts of the case and  contentions of the Complainants are as follows:

i)       In the said case, the Complainant No.1 Mr Sandeep Girkar and other 11 persons are the employees and ex-employees of Department of the Posts.  According to the Complainants, they were eligible for air travel as per the Government Rules and Welfare Measure issued by Government of India.  Accordingly, the Complainants as per LTC provisions arranged their visit to destination, Port Blair of Andaman and Nicobar during 04/11/2019 to 09/11/2019.  After completion of their journey, they submitted the travel bills to their Controlling Authority i.e, Sr. Supdt. of Post Offices, Mumbai.

ii)      The Complainants state that their controlling departmental Government Authority viz. Sr.Supdt. of Post Offices, Mumbai North East Division, Mumbai-400042 vide Letter dt.20/01/2020 which is at Exh.B of complaint compilation, informed the Complainants that the Opposite Party is not authorized to sale the air tickets to Government servants for travelling, hence, their resultant claims towards air journey tickets purchased from Opposite Party from Chennai onwards to Port Blair & vice versa are rejected.

iii)     The Complainants earlier had never travelled through said airline and thus, was not having any idea of propriety, reputation of said company.  The Complainants booked the tickets on spicevacations.com which is powered by Spice Jet Airlines.  The Complainants relying on the website of Opposite Party and telephonic oral information provided by the representatives of Opposite Party booked tickets online from the website of the Opposite Party.  The Complainants submit that the conversation with employees of the airline company gave impression to them that the said journey by spice jet airline is entitle for LTC, even it is booked on spicevacation.com.

iv)      However, the said booking on spicevacation.com was not accepted by the departmental authority and rejected the claims of the Complainants and restricted to rail fare of Mumbai to Chennai journey only.  Because of this, the above named 12 Complainants have suffered loss of Rs.12,03,340/-, due to rejection of their resultant travelling bills.  According to the Complainants, this was because the wrong information given by Spice Jet employees while booking the air tickets.

2)                Having aggrieved with misleading information given by the Opposite Party which becomes deficiency in service and unfair trade practice, the Complainants approached to this Commission to seek justice.

Contentions of the Opposite Party

3)       Learned Advocate Shri Rohan Pawaskar appeared before this Commission on behalf of the Opposite Party and at the outset, states that the present complaint filed by the Complainants is wholly misconceived, baseless and unsustainable under the law and is therefore liable to be dismissed as such.

4)       The Opposite Party states that the tickets booked by the Complainants on spicevacation.com according to their choice.  The said journey was completed on the dates 04/11/2019 and return journey on 09/11/2019.  Spice Jet have no role in rejection of LTC of the travellers.  There is no communication by Spice Jet to the Complainants that the said booked tickets are eligible for LTC.

5)                Further, it is brought to our notice by the Opposite Party that the Complainants had booked air tickets for the said travel on 15/06/2019.  Enquiry by the Complainants through mail to know about eligibility for LTC was made on 22/10/2019.  As this was beyond the company’s jurisdiction, no communication on this was done by the airline company.  In spite of this, the Complainants completed their travel as per the scheduled dates of travel.

6)                The Opposite Party further states that the present complaint is baseless and a blatant abuse of the process of law to harass and grab relief from the Opposite Party.

7)                We have gone through the records submitted by both the parties, their written submissions, Affidavit of evidence and written arguments.  Perused all the correspondences between the Complainants and Opposite Party as also Government Circulars in this regards.  Based on above submissions and documents, the following points did arise for our determination on which we record findings with the reasons given below:-

Observations of the facts and Conclusions

8)                The Complainants are the employees and ex-employees of the Department of Post, Government of India.  As provided in the Government Welfare Schemes, the travels were booked and LTC was claimed and the same was rejected by the Controlling Authority of the Complainants.

9) While rejecting these claims, the Controlling Authority vide their Letter dt.20/01/2020 with Ref.No.

“Sub- Encashment of LTC claim under LTC-80

Ref:- Your letter dtd 13.01.2020.

This is with reference to your letter cited above. It is to intimate that after inquiry at SpiceJet regarding booking of your Air ticket from Chennai to Portblair (to and fro), it is revealed that the tickets were booked through Spicevacations.com. The fares are severally inflated on Spicevacations.com as compared to Spicejet.com. As per DOPT OM no. 31011/3/2014-EstilA-IV efforts should be made by the Government servants to book the air tickets at the cheapest fare possible.

Further as per DOPT OM No 31011/4/2014-Estt (A.IV) dated 19.06.2014 tickets should be booked directly from the /airlines (Booking counters, website of airlines) or from authorized travel agents viz. M/s Balmar Lawrie &Company,M/s Ashok Travels & Tours/IRCTC. It also states, "In no case is the booking of tickets through any other agency is permissible".

Time to time instructions have been issued to book tickets directly from airlines website or authorized agent ie M/s Balmar Lawrie &Company,M/s Ashok Travels & Tours/IRCTC for LTC.You have submitted tickets which were booked through Spicevations.com. Therefore, your Claim is restricted upto 3 tier Ac train fare from Mumbai to Chennai (to and fro) as per eligibility”.

10)              Further, it is seen from the Office Memorandum issued by Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Department of Personnel and Training, Government of India dated 20/09/2018 and 08/10/2020 wherein it is mentioned at Para 2 (vi) & 2 (vii) as follows :-

(vi) Air travel by Government employees to NER, J&K and A&N as mentioned in para (iv) and (v) above is allowed whether they avail the concession against Anywhere in India LTC or in lieu of the Home Town LTC as permitted.

(vii) Air Tickets are to be purchased directly from the airlines (Booking counters, website of airlines) or by utilizing the service of Authorized Travel Agents viz. 'M/s Balmer Lawrie & Company', 'M/s Ashok Travels & Tours' and 'IRCTC [to the extent IRCTC is authorized as per DoPT's O.M. No. 31011/6/2002- Estt. (A) dated 02.12.2009] while undertaking LTC journey. Booking of tickets through other agencies is not permitted and no request for relaxation of rules for booking the tickets through such agencies shall be considered by this Department.

11)              Thus it is observed that the Governments Regulations regarding availing travel LTC are self-explanatory and restrict its employees to make the bookings of such travels either-

a) Booking counters of airlines, or

b) Website of airlines or

c) By utilising services of Authorised service agent (mentioned in the circular).

12)              Thus, no booking from any other source is permitted.  The denial of LTC is by the Controlling Authority of the said employees, which is based on the internal circulars of their department.  The Opposite party has no role to play in said denial or rejection of the LTC concession.

13)              Further, the enquiry made by the Complainants with the Opposite Party is after four months of booking of the tickets with the Opposite Party.  On enquiry by the Complainants on 12/11/2019 by mail, the Opposite Party didn’t gave any positive reply to the said query of the Complainants, which can indicate that the said air tickets are eligible or entitle for LTC.  In fact, the reply to said question is beyond the authority of airlines.  It is up to the Controlling Authority of the department whether to accept the said claim or reject.

14)              Based on the above facts and findings thereoff, we are of the opinion that the Complainants are not justified to hold Spice Jet responsible for rejection of LTC claim of the Complainants by the Controlling Authority of the Department of Post.

15)              In the light of above discussion and evidence produced on record, it is observed that no case is made out against the Opposite Party towards deficiency in service and unfair trade practice and it is clear that the deficiency in service and unfair trade practice cannot be attributed to M/s Spice Jet Ltd., i.e, the Opposite Party herein.  Thus, the complainant is not entitled to any of the relief sought. In result, we record our finding on Point No.1 in negative and pass following order.

ORDER

1. Consumer Complaint No.CC/209/2021 stands dismissed.

2. Parties to bear their own costs.

3. Copies of this order be sent to both the parties free of costs.