FIRST ADDITIONAL BENCH STATE CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL COMMISSION, PUNJAB, CHANDIGARH Date of Institution : 25.07.2022 Date of Reserve : 28.07.2023 Date of Decision : 17.08.2023 Goibibo.com, through its authorized signatory Parag Chahal, son of Sh.D.S.Chahal, 19^th Floor, Tower A, B and C, Epitome Building No.5, DLF Cyber City, Phase III, Gurugram, Haryana.

….Appellant/Opposite party Versus

1. Amrit Pal Jaiswal, resident of Dhurkot Road, Nihal Singh Wala, District Moga, Punjab.

2. Geeta Jaiswal, wife of Amritpal, resident of Dhurkot Road, Nihal Singh Wala, District Moga, Punjab.

3. Poonam Jaiswal, daughter of Amritpal, resident of Dhurkot Road, Nihal Singh Wala, District Moga, Punjab.

…..Respondents/complainants First Appeal under Section 41 of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 against the order dated 07.06.2022 of the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, Moga.

Quorum:-

Mr.Harinderpal Singh Mahal, Presiding Judicial Member Present:-

For the appellant : Sh.Karan Singh, Advocate proxy for Sh.Animesh Sharma, Advocate For the respondents : Ex-parte HARINDERPAL SINGH MAHAL, PRESIDING JUDICIAL MEMBER This appeal has been preferred by the appellant/opposite party–Goibibo; against the order dated 07.06.2022 passed by the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, Moga (in short, “the District Commission”), whereby the complaint filed by the complainants under Section 35 of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 (in short ‘the Act’) was partly allowed and opposite party was directed to refund the amount of Rs.1,83,140/- to the complainants along with interest @8% per annum from the respective date of deposit till its actual realization.

It would be apposite to mention that hereinafter the parties will be referred, as have been arrayed before the District Commission.

2. In nutshell, the complainants No.1 and 2 booked travel flight tickets on 16.03.2019 from the opposite party for New Delhi to Edmonton for 29.10.2019 and return from Edmonton to New Delhi for 16.01.2020, vide tickets No.5893476452134 and 5893476452135 on Jet Airways, vide PNR No.QDVFVI and paid Rs.1,29,860/-. The complainant No.3 also booked a travel ticket from opposite party on 20.02.2019 for New Delhi to Edmonton, ticket No.5893475095792, against PNR No.YLFHKF on payment of Rs.53,280/-. It is further averred that Jet Airways has closed its business and the complainants are entitled to get the refund of the amount along with interest. They were approached number of times by the complainants to refund the money and also issued a legal notice but to no effect, which amounts to deficiency in service and unfair trade practice, resultantly compelling the complainants to file the complaint before the District Commission seeking following reliefs against the opposite party:

i) to pay a sum of Rs.1,83,140/- with regard to the booking of tickets; and ii) to pay Rs.50,000/- on account of compensation for mental tension and damages;

3. Upon notice opposite party appeared and alleged that there is no deficiency in service on the part of the opposite party and the complaint has been filed with false facts. It is alleged that opposite party is a consumer centric company, which is managed through online web-portal i.e. www.goibibo.com and mobile application namely ‘Goibibo’ and it provides all the travel related unblemished services and information to its customers but not limited to air tickets, railway tickets, bus tickets and hotel bookings at competitive prices. The opposite party acts as a facilitator for booking the confirmed air tickets on behalf of the customers with the concerned service provider and after receiving the request from the customers, forward the same to the concerned airlines/ service providers through softwares embedded on its web portal. After receiving the confirmation from the concerned service providers, the booking ID is generated and confirmed the bookings/tickets is shared with the customers. They admitted that the complainant made booking through opp