IMPORTANT POINT
Confirmed Air tickets cannot be easily cancelled.

R.C. Jain, Presiding Member—Aggrieved by the impugned common order dated 14.09.2011 passed by Tamil Nadu State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, Chennai (for short ‘the State Commission’) in First Appeal Nos. 638 of 2011, 316 of 2009 and 132 of 2009, Air India (O.P. No. 3 in the original complaint) has filed the present petition purportedly under Section 21(b) of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 (for short ‘The Act’). The appeals before the State Commission were filed by the opposite parties No. 1 to 3 against the order dated 13.01.2009 passed by District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, Mylapore, Chennai -4 in consumer complaint No. 723 of 2004. By the said order, the District Forum partly allowed the complaint filed by the complainants/Dr. Mary Ramasamy for herself and as mother and natural guardian of her two daughters, Ms. Niranjana Ramasamy and Ms. Krupa Ruth Ramasamy against the Managing Director-Travelon World Wide Pvt. Ltd. (O.P. No.1), Managing Director-Quantas (O.P. No.2) and Managing Director-Indian Airlines (O.P. No.3) alleging deficiency in service on their part, and directed the O.P. No. 1 to 3 jointly and severally to pay a sum of Rs. 25,000/- as compensation and Rs. 5,000/- as cost of the litigation to each of the three complainants with the stipulation that the awarded amount shall be paid within six weeks from the date of the receipt of the order, failing which the awarded amount shall carry interest @ 9% per annum till the date of payment.

2. Aggrieved by the said order, O.P. No. 1 to 3 filed appeals Nos. 638 of 2011, FA No. 316 of 2009 and FA No. 132 of 2009. The State Commission dismissed the appeal No. 638 of 2011 filed on behalf of O.P. No.1-Travelon World Wide Pvt. Ltd.(the travel agent) and F.A. No. 132 of 2009 filed by O.P. No.3-Air India, while it accepted the F.A. No. 316 of 2009 filed by Quantas (O.P. No.2) and set aside the order of the District Forum against them. It had held the other O.Ps/appellant guilty of deficiency in service and liable to pay the compensation jointly and severally with the other opposite parties/appellants.

3. The facts and circumstances, which led to the filing of the complaint by the complainants have been noted in detail in the orders passed by the Fora below and need no repetition at our end. To answer the present proceedings, we may simply notice that the above named complainants had filed complaints against the travel agent, Quanta and Air India alleging deficiency in service on their part on the broad allegations that they had booked their air passage from Chennai to Melbourne via Singapore, by paying the requisite fare to the travel agent who issued them O.K. tickets. As per the itinerary, the complainants were to take flight No. IC 555 (Indian Airlines) from Chennai International Airport to Singapore leaving at 00.50 hours on 21.12.2002 and thereafter QF 16 from Singapore to Melbourne leaving the Singapore at 9.20 hours. When the complainants reached Chennai International Airport for taking the scheduled flight No. IC 555, to their utter shock and surprise they found that their names did not figure in the list of the passengers scheduled to travel on the said flight. Despite the complainants having confirmed / O.K. tickets, they were not allowed to board the said flight and their passage was rescheduled for the next day i.e. 22.12.2002 by the even number flight. Since the said flight was delayed and could not reach Singapore in time, they could not be put on the connecting flight to Melbourne. After waiting for about 12 hours at Singapore Airport, they were put on a different flight via Sydney. Complainants reached Melbourne after a delay of more than thirty six hours, which made their waiting relatives quite anxious but also caused lot of mental and physical torture and discomfort and extra expense to the complainants. The travel agent did not choose to contest the complaint despite service of notice but the other two opposite parties i.e. Quantas Ai