NRI Awarded Rs. one Lakh for (PIA) guilty of "deficiency in service"

 

Pakistan airlines to pay Rs 1 lakh for cancellation of flight

New Delhi, Oct 03, 2007
PTI

Holding Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) guilty of "deficiency in service," the Delhi Consumer Commission has asked it to pay a compensation of Rs one lakh to a passenger who had to suffer due to cancellation of its flight.
The Commission, presided over by Justice J D Kapoor, noted that PIA had failed in substantiating its claim that all the flights on that day were cancelled due to bad weather.

"There is no material or document to show that as a result of thick fog, all the flights were cancelled," Justice Kapoor said, adding the pretext of bad weather was "flimsy" as, if it was so, at the most the flight could only be delayed and not cancelled.

The Commission's order came on a complaint by Bhagwan Dutt, an NRI who had visited India on a visa and had purchased a ticket from PIA to go back to Riyadh on December 16, 1998.

When he reached the IGI Airport here, he was informed that his flight would not take off due to bad weather and was asked to come the next day.

But there seemed no end of ordeal for Dutt, who caught the flight on December 17 on a promise by PIA to fly him to Riyadh but was stranded at Karachi and was again sent back to India after five days as the air carrier failed to secure him a confirmed ticket in a connecting flight.

Taken aback by the slackness of the Pakistan's premier airlines, he approached the Commission, which allowed his complaint and discarded the PIA's plea of bad weather conditions, saying the onus was upon it to make all possible efforts to see that flights take off.

The Commission, in a recent order, has now directed PIA to pay Rs one lakh, which shall include the cost of the ticket and damages for mental agony and harassment.