Mr. Justice D.P. Wadhwa, President—We had earlier heard the arguments and passed the following order on 23.1.2003.

It is the complainant who is in appeal before us. His claim for damages against the respondents Gulf Air, an international carrier was dismissed by the State Commission. His complaint was that he was a business class passenger and in the flight of Gulf Air between the Sector Bahrain-Istanbul he was given a seat which was fixed and was not a reclinable on account of which he suffered great inconvenience and discomfort for 6½ hours journey. He had not bargained for such a treatment of an international airlines when he had purchased a business class ticket which was of much higher in value than an economy class ticket. Complainant, therefore, claimed Rs. 5.00 lakhs as damages for the agony caused to him. In fact, the ticket was for travel from ‘Delhi-Doha-Bahrain-Istanbul-Dubai-Delhi.’

There is no dispute about the purchase of business class air ticket by complainant and the seat which was provided to him by the airlines during the journey from Bahrain to Istanbul was a fixed seat and not a reclinable one. When the complainant found the seat to be fixed he complained t