New Delhi: An illiterate Indian flyer was awarded a compensation of Rs 2.5 lakh last week by a consumer forum after it ruled that he was treated callously by a foreign airline.
Mangat Ram had a Royal Jordanian ticket for Barcelona in Spain, via Amman. At Amman, the traveller was asked to fly to Athens from where, he was told, a connecting flight would take him to Spain.
But when Ram, who did not know English, landed in Athens, he failed to explain to the immigration authorities why he was there and spent four days in detention in a Greek prison till he informed his daughter in Spain about his ordeal — his son-in-law then flew in from there to bail him out. Even then, Ram was sent back to Delhi.
This was in May 2007, and Ram finally got justice when the consumer disputes redressal forum ( New Delhi) president C K Chaturvedi acted on his complaint against the airline. Chaturvedi ordered a compensation of Rs 2.5 lakh along with a refund of the ticket charge of Rs 36,000, and extra expenses of Rs 2,500.
The forum dismissed Jordanian's reply in which the airline said: "It is correct that at Athens airport, immigration authorities found the complainant inadmissible after checking his travel documents and as his overall appearance was not supporting the purpose of his trip and also being convinced that the purpose of his trip was seeking illegal employment and not leisure travel." Rejecting this argument, Chaturvedi ruled: "It is unfortunate that airlines can be so callous and casual to (an) Indian passenger who may be illiterate and may not match in appearance and attire of Europeans."
29/06/11 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India
To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline
0 comments:
Post a Comment