E-Paper
Missing items: Consumer forum directs Chinese airline to pay ₹1 lakh to Ludhiana resident
The commission comprising its president Sanjeev Batra and members Jaswinder Singh and Monika Bhagat ordered the airline to pay composite costs and compensation of ₹15,000 to the complainant
: The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission directed the China Southern Airline to pay ₹1 lakh to a Ludhiana resident as the cost of missing items within 30 days.
The commission comprising its president Sanjeev Batra and members Jaswinder Singh and Monika Bhagat ordered the airline to pay composite costs and compensation of ₹15,000 to the complainant.
On July 13, 2020, Shikha Narang, 44, a resident of Tilak Nagar, lodged a complaint under Section 12 of the Consumer Protection Act requesting a total compensation of ₹2 lakh along with ₹1.2 lakh for damages and ₹15,000 for legal expenses.
She stated that she along with her husband and children booked their air tickets for a holiday tour to Melbourne. As per schedule, she took the airline flight from Delhi to Guangzhou and a further flight from Guangzhou to Melbourne where she stayed along with her family and made various purchases during her stay.
According to Narang, on arriving to the Delhi airport on January 19, 2020, for her return flight, instead of receiving her bag, she was given an inspection report called the ‘notice of checked baggage inspection’. The report disclosed that a battery had been removed and taken into the custody of the airport authorities without her consent, citing regulations of the civil aviation security of the People’s Republic of China and other relevant laws.
It was also revealed that her bag was missing and that a complaint had been registered by the airport authorities based on a “property irregularity report”. The authorities assured her that they would deliver the bag to her residential address in Ludhiana as soon as it was found or recovered, she added.
As per the complainant, on January 22, 2020, representatives from the airline visited her residence in Ludhiana and requested her to receive her bags, which were allegedly packed in a plastic cover. However, she noticed that the weight of the bags felt lighter than when she had carried them in Melbourne. Before opening the bags, the complainant took pictures and recorded a video and also observed that the lock on one of the bags was broken.
On opening the bags, she claimed that several purchased items such as a camera, wine bottle, perfume, wallet, clothes, and USD 190 were missing.
She lodged her complaint through various emails but the airline refused to compensate her on the grounds that after investigation, they have not found any baggage weight discrepancy and that valuable items are not allowed to carry in check-in baggage. The complainant further submitted that neither the CCTV footage and investigation report was supplied to her nor the airline gave any response to the video and photos of the lost item from the baggage.
The commission ruled out that the complainant had lodged the claim for compensation with regard to seven items which includes USD 190 and in order to justify her purchases made by her during her travel to Australia. A close scrutiny of the invoice reveals that this purchase was made on December 8, 2019, much before her stay in Australia. So, this Commission is not inclined to consider this invoice for the purpose of computing the loss of the complainant.
Moreover, there is insufficient evidence to support the claim that the bag contained USD 190. However, considering the apparent worth of the invoices in foreign currency, the Commission has deemed it appropriate to finalise the compensation amount to ₹1 lakh in Indian currency. It is essential to note that the airline did not fulfil their service obligation, resulting in a deficiency in their service, the Commission added.
The airline’s refusal to provide compensation to the complainant was unwarranted since an inventory of the missing items was created in the presence of their delivery agent, Akshay Gaur. Therefore, the airline is responsible for paying a combined amount of ₹15,000 to the complainant. As there were no claims made against The Holiday Experts, who were a pro forma opposite party, the complaint against them should be dismissed.
