The Supreme Court, on Monday, issued notice to the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation on a petition seeking that airlines, both domestic and international, be directed to grant a full refund on the tickets cancelled after all flights were grounded due to the COVID19.
A three-judge bench headed by Justice NV Ramana and comprising of Justices SK Kaul and BR Gavai, attended the matter though video conferencing gave an oral verdict and said that the non-refund on the tickets booked for air travel after the lockdown was “arbitrary.”
The plea was moved by Pravasi Legal Cell. The plea asked and requested the court to declare non-refund of the amount of the tickets by airlines as illegal and violative of the Civil Aviation Requirement issued by the DGCA.
The petitioner informed that instead of giving a full refund for the cancellation of tickets, they are providing with the credit shell that would be valid for one year.
Justice Kaul observed the refund to be arbitrary.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation, on 16 April, issued an office memorandum directing all airline operators to refund the full amount collected for all tickets booked during the first phase of lockdown period (15 March to 14 April).
The petition states that a passenger doesn’t need to put a request for the refund as it is the duty of the airlines to initiate the refund just after the cancellation. The petition also highlights that the Office Memorandum “leaves out the vast majority of passengers who had booked tickets before the flights were banned and thus indirectly approves the practice of the airlines providing credit shell for booking effected before the lockdown, though the same clearly violates the refund rules of Directorate General of Civil Aviation(DGCA).”
