Kingfisher to pay Rs 30K for denying boarding to woman flier

Kingfisher Airlines has been asked by the apex consumer commission to pay Rs 30,000 as compensation and to issue a complimentary air ticket to a woman for "arbitrarily" denying her boarding citing "over booking" of flight despite her having a confirmed ticket.

The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission's (NCDRC) order was passed while dismissing a plea by Kingfisher Airlines challenging the decisions of the Chandigarh State Consumer Commission and a district forum which had directed the airline to pay the compensation to the woman passenger, apart from issuing her a complimentary return ticket.

"We find that fora below have done no wrong in awarding a compensation of Rs 30,000 to the respondent-complainant (Lata Sikri), for the mental agony and harassment faced by her, besides the return domestic ticket which was offered by the petitioner (Kingfisher) itself to complainant....

"We, therefore, see no illegality, material irregularities, much less any jurisdictional error in the impugned order.... The revision petition is accordingly dismissed," the bench presided by Justice R C Jain said.

The NCDRC while upholding the subordinate fora's decision observed that the woman alone was denied boarding while the rest of her group, all male members, were allowed to board the flight and she had reached her destination 12 hours late.

Chandigarh based Lata Sikri in her complaint before the district forum had alleged that despite having a confirmed ticket to travel to Hyderabad from Delhi she was not allowed to board the flight, while others in her group were allowed.

The airline had said she was denied boarding due to over booking of the flight and it had arranged for her onward journey from Hyderabad airport to Bidar by cab at its expense.
It had also said that it had offered her a complimentary return ticket for her troubles but she had refused it.

The district forum had allowed Sikri's complaint and awarded her a compensation of Rs 30,000 along with the air ticket initially offered by the airline.

The state commission had upheld the district forum's order, leading to the airline moving the NCDRC.