SC reserves order on plea seeking refund for cancelled flights’ airfare

On Friday Supreme Court has reserved the decision  in plea seeking refund of airfare for tickets booked during COVID-19 lockdown.

A Bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, R Subhash Reddy and MR Shah was hearing this matter.

The Court said that in your affidavit it is said that the passenger can also transfer the credit voucher to someone else, in such a way, the agent can take the credit voucher from the passenger and recover his money, this solution seems right. Justice MR Shah asked that if the money is returned to the travel agents, when will the traveller get it back?

Counsel for the Travel Agent Federation said that CAR regulates travel agents. I have no problem if the money is deposited in the travel agents account and they can be transferred.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said, We are only concerned about the passengers. If a travel agent has deposited money in advance with the airlines, then we have nothing to say on that, “bulk purchase” of tickets cannot be done, it is a contract between the airlines and the travel agent. The DGCA has nothing to do with this. He said that the travel agent cannot benefit from the credit shell scheme, we do not supervise travel agents.

Senior Advocate Arvind Datar appearing for GoAir said that our economic condition is not right, we also want to refund, fuel prices have gone up by 78%. We have not got any relief from RBI, we are not doing compulsory service, we cannot pay in 6 months. It is impractical to keep the credit shell period till 31 March. Until the time till 30 September 2021, if the passenger does not take the ticket in lieu of the ticket, then we will return the money.

 On this, the Supreme Court said that it is the problem of your company, why should travellers travel for it.

By Priya Kumari