The Supreme Court on Monday admitted a petition seeking a full refund for airline tickets cancelled due to the COVID-19 lockdown, irrespective of when the booking was done.
A Bench of Justices N.V. Ramana, S.K. Kaul and B.R. Gavai admitted the petition filed by NGO, Pravasi Legal Cell, which had primarily challenged an April 16 Office Memorandum (OM) of the Civil Aviation Ministry which covers only the refund of tickets booked during the lockdown period. The OM leaves out the vast majority of passengers who booked tickets before the flights were banned due to the lockdown.
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Justice Kaul made a prima facie oral observation that it may seem “arbitrary” if refunds were issued only for air tickets booked after the enforcement of the lockdown.
All tickets booked for journeys cancelled because of lockdown should be reimbursed, irrespective of when the booking was done, the judge remarked.
Seeks reply
The court sought a reply from the Civil Aviation Ministry and the Director General of Civil Aviation on this issue.
“There is no question of anyone booking a ticket during the lockdown period knowing the fact that schedule passenger flights were cancelled for period of travel. This makes the Office Memorandum of the Ministry of Civil Aviation ambiguous and devoid of any logic. The Office Memorandum is in clear violation of the fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution in so far as directing the airlines to provide full refund of ticket amount only if the ticket is booked during the lockdown period for travel during the lockdown, which amounts to treating equals unequally,” the petition had contended.
Credit shell
It said the OM indirectly approves the practice of airlines providing credit shell for booking effected before the lockdown, though the same clearly violates the refund rules of the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
“Airlines instead of providing the full refund of the amount collected for the tickets due to cancellation, are providing a credit shell, valid up to one year, which is in clear violation of the Civil Aviation Requirement of May 2008 issued by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA),” the petition filed said.
It said the DGCA clearly required that “the option of holding the refund amount in credit shell by the airlines shall be the prerogative of the passenger and not a default practice of the airline”.
The May 2008 DGCA requirement mandates that refunds should be done within seven days from date of cancellation in case of credit card payments. In case of cash payment, the ticket refund should be made immediately.
On the other hand, the April 16 Memorandum allows airlines 30 days after receiving a passenger’s request for a refund.
‘Unlawful gains’
“Airline companies, instead of showing humanitarian virtues, are rather seeing these challenging times as an opportunity to extract unlawful gains from the people who are already in misery due to uncertainties. That the present policy is extremely harsh on the ordinary passengers who booked tickets in advance for travelling,” the petition said.
