A plea has been filed in the Delhi High Court on April 22, 2019, seeking direction to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation and the Ministry of Civil Aviation to ensure refund or alternate travel arrangements for passengers who had booked tickets with Jet Airways.
The plea was filed by activist Bejon Kumar through Advocates Shashank Deo Sudhi, Dinesh Kumar Dakoria and Bijender P. Kumar.
In his plea, Mr. Kumar has said that the sudden suspension of air services of Jet Airways has resulted into a major crisis for passengers.
“It is common knowledge that more 1000 scheduled flights had been cancelled by Jet Airways and the respondents are sitting ideal and leaving the common passenger to their fate…That it is submitted that as per the report available in the public domain, approximately more than ₹360 crore of the passengers/consumers hard earned money are under threat due to non-refund of the ticket value. Additionally, the passengers/consumers have to not only purchase alternative tickets at highly exorbitant cost but also go through lots of anxieties and mental agony," the plea states.
Further, the plea also states that “Suddenly without prior information or notice, more than 100 flights being cancelled and passengers are constrained to run from pillar to post for managing their urgent official and personal commitments, resulting in huge damages and chaos to seek alternative mode of travel and seats on other airlines, who are profiteering out of an avoidable crisis if respondent No.2 & 3 would have conducted themselves in a more responsible and judicious manner…The airlines are behaving in complete violation of our constitutional rights and encouraging monopolistic practices to prevail in connivance with the respondents.
..there is a complete chaotic aviation crisis looming over the country where the consumers/passengers are victims on account of absence of any robust and effective regulator in the aviation sector in India to regulate the functioning of the airlines in a fair and ethical manner in order to monitor and regulate airfares in the interest of the passengers at large.”
The plea also calls for amendments to the existing laws to make airlines liable for all the damages caused to the passengers and the reputation of our country.
The matter is listed for hearing on April 24, 2019.
