NGO moves SC for full refund of flights cancelled in lockdown

An NGO, Pravasi Legal Cell on Monday approached the Supreme Court for a direction to the domestic and international flight operators to refund the full amount of ticket of the flights cancelled during the period of lockdown.

It contended that the action on the part of the airlines in not refunding the full amount collected for the tickets due to the cancellation of flights in the wake of restrictions imposed to contain COVID-19 was arbitrary and in violation of the Civil Aviation requirement issued by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.

"The 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," it claimed.

The NGO said the Ministry of Civil Aviation's order issued on April 16 directing the airlines to refund only those tickets that were booked during the lockdown period and left out the vast majority of passengers who had booked tickets before the flights were banned, was like treating the equals unequally in violation of the fundamental rights of citizens.

"The present policy is extremely harsh on the ordinary passengers who book tickets in advance for travelling," it said.