Panel asks airlines to pay Rs 7,000 compensation to city resident

The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, Chandigarh, has directed Inter Globe Aviation (IndiGo) airlines to pay a compensation of Rs 7,000 to a city resident for causing inconvenience during a flight by re-allotting pre-assigned seats to other passengers.

In a complaint filed before the commission, Prabhjit Singh Gill, a city resident, said he had booked flight tickets for himself and two relatives on January 14 for his travel from Thiruvananthapuram to Chandigarh on January 16.

As per the flight schedule, there was a layover at the Mumbai airport for two hours and thereafter the flight was to resume to Chandigarh. He paid a total amount of Rs 74,499 for the flight. A confirmation of the travel details for the same was received by him on January 14. However, he got an intimation that his flight was rescheduled for January 17 due to bad weather.

When they arrived at the Mumbai airport on January 17 to complete the boarding formalities, they were issued three boarding passes. After boarding the flight, they found that their seats 20D, 20E and 20F had been re-allotted and occupied by some other passengers.

In fact, the airlines had billed six customers for the same three seats twice as a result of which Gill and his relatives were shifted to random seats, away from each other, which caused immense harassment, frustration and mental agony to them. Alleging that the act was deficiency in service and unfair trade practice on their part, they filed the complaint.

In reply, the Inter Globe Aviation denied that the allotted seats were re-allotted and occupied by some other passengers. It said due to an unforeseen technical error in the software, the seat status was not updated and the Mumbai team allotted different seats to the complainants, other than the ones reserved earlier. However, the complainants travelled to their destination. Denying any deficiency on its part, it said all other allegations made in the complaint had been proved wrong.

After hearing the arguments the commission said Inter Globe Aviation being a reputed airlines should have acted diligently so as to avoid any difficulty to their passengers, but in this case due to the negligent act, the complainants had to undergo a lot of mental agony and harassment, which is a case of deficiency and for that they were liable to compensate the complainant. In view of this, Inter Globe Aviation is directed to pay Rs 7,000 to the complainants as compensation for causing mental agony and harassment and Rs 5,000 to the complainant as costs of litigation, it added.