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SC stays consumer
court's order against Air India
PTIThursday, April
2, 2010 17:09 IST Email
New Delhi: Air India on Thursday got reprieve from the Supreme Court
which stayed a consumer court's order that asked the state-owned
airline to publicise information relating to passenger interest,
including those about flight delays and refreshments.
A Bench headed by Justice
BN Agarwal, while staying the National Consumer Disputes Redressal
Commission's interim order, sought reply from passengers Ajay Kalia
and others on whose complaint directions were passed against Air
India (now NACIL).
The Commission in its interim
orders dated July 23 and August 22, 2009 and February 20, this year
had asked the airline to publicise and implement the regulations
in the
'Manual for Passenger Service,' According to the orders, the manual
which is beneficial for the public at large, should be put up at
prominent places at every airport in the country from where the
airline operated and also publish a summary of the regulations in
one or two paragraphs in a leading English daily within a period
of three weeks.
Challenging the Commission's
jurisdiction to pass such orders, Air India sought SC's intervention
in deciding whether the manual, which is an internal guideline for
ensuring that its staff work together as a well-knit cohesive team
in their endeavour to provide safe and comfortable travel to passengers,
was a public document.
"It is a well-settled
proposition of law that internal guidelines have no statutory force
and have no binding effect whatsoever," Air India said in its
petition.
The petition further said
displaying internal guideline would present a wrong picture and
"would open a floodgate of unwarranted demands by the consumer,
claiming the same to be their right, where it is a matter of contract".
According to Air India, the
Directorate General of Civil Aviation, the regulatory authority,
was for the first time bringing a Civil Aviation Requirement (CAR)
on such facilities and would indicate certain mandatory and recommendatory
procedures for passenger handling.
Thus, any such move to display
any regulations should only be finalised after the directorate issued
CAR to all the operators, the petition filed through Subramonium
Prasad added. Air India senior counsel Mukul Rohtagi submitted that
under Section 14 of the Consumer Protection Act 1986, the Commission
or any other forum did not have power to pass interim relief without
satisfying that the goods complained against suffered from any defects
or till any allegations about the services in the complaint were
proved.
Passengers Kalia and his
family had boarded an Air India flight from Dubai to Delhi on January
2, this year. However, when the family reached Dubai airport they
found that the flight was delayed by three hours due to dense fog.
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