E-Paper
Couple deboarded from IndiGo flight for carrying power bank awarded ₹4 lakh
Consumer commission hold airline guilty of violating complainants’ human dignity, infringing their fundamental rights
A Moga couple, who was forced to deboard an IndiGo flight from Delhi to Goa for carrying a power bank in their check-in luggage, has been awarded ₹4-lakh compensation by the Punjab State Consumer Disputes Redressal
Commission.
InterGlobe Aviation Limited, that operates the IndiGo airlines, was also directed to pay ₹44,000 as litigation cost to the complainants, Monika Kansal and her husband, Puneet Kansal, both practicing lawyers at the Punjab and Haryana high court.
“This act and conduct of the airlines amount to doing violence to their human dignity and infringes, to the hilt, their fundamental rights. Deboarding not only caused inconvenience to the couple but this trauma had resulted into various types of other complications,” ruled the commission, while disposing of an appeal by the couple.
The Kansals had filed an appeal against the order of the Moga District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum that had dismissed their complaint in June 2019.
“There is deficiency in service and adoption of unfair trade practice on the part of the airlines in deboarding the couple,” ruled the state consumer commission.
The couple submitted that they had booked the IndiGo flight from Delhi to Goa for a vacation in September 2016.
After the boarding the plane on September 1, just a few minutes before take off, the flight attendants asked Puneet to accompany them, citing “some problem with the check-in luggage”. After Puneet, even Monika was asked to get up and leave the plane.
It was only after much persuasion that they were told that Puneet’s check-in luggage contained a power bank, which was not cleared for loading in the plane.
Though they were later allowed to travel to Goa via a connecting flight through Ahmedabad, they contended that due to the extreme stress and strain, they could not enjoy their vacation.
Contesting the appeal, InterGlobe Aviation Limited submitted that the statutory framework under the Aircraft Act, 1934, and the rules made thereunder, prohibited the carrying of lithium-ion batteries (which includes a power bank) in the check-in baggage on board the aircraft of any Indian airline.
They said InterGlobe Aviation Limited was not liable for the couple missing their flight on account of carrying a power bank in breach of the IndiGo conditions of carriage and applicable law.
Quashing the airline’s claim, the commission held, “Such bags can be refused to be taken and there is no condition in the said instructions to deboard the passengers on that ground.”
The commission also said that as per instructions, though the power bank was not permissible in check-in baggage, it could be taken in hand baggage.
“Instead of deboarding the complainant and her husband, they could have been asked to remove the power bank from the check-in luggage, and could have been allowed to take it in the carriage bag. For that purpose the flight could have been delayed for few minutes, but nothing of the sort has been done,” the commission held, while awarding relief to the couple.
