SC asks airlines to spell out stand on refund for tickets booked during Lockdown 1, 2

Satya Prakash
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, September 9

The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked airlines to spell out their stand on a full refund of money to passengers for air tickets booked during lockdown 1 & 2 when air travel was banned due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A Bench led by Justice Ashok Bhushan asked the airlines to respond in 10 days to the Centre's affidavit that said passengers were entitled to a full refund for air tickets booked during Lockdown 1 & 2 and posted the matter for further hearing on September 23.

The Bench said the Centre may also file an additional affidavit clarifying its position on the issues raised during the hearing, particularly with regard to refund for flights cancelled after the resumption of operations post lockdown.

Major airlines such as Indigo, GoAir, Vistara, Spicejet, Air Asia were represented by various senior advocates, including Mukul Rohatgi and Harish Salve, Arvind Datar and Pinaki Mishra while Air Passengers' Association was represented by senior advocate Aryana Sundaram.

The top court is seized of a PIL filed by Pravasi Legal Cell demanding full automatic refund of money for tickets booked for flights during the COVID-19 lockdown.

The Supreme Court had on June 12 issued notices to the Civil Aviation Ministry and the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on the PIL.

“If the tickets have been booked during the first lockdown period, i.e. 25th of March, 2020 to 14th of April, 2020 for the journeys to be undertaken in both first and second lockdown period i.e. from 25th of March, 2020 to 3rd of May, 2020, in all such cases, a full refund shall be given by the airlines immediately,” the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said regarding domestic airlines’ tickets booked directly by the passenger with airlines.

Similarly, for international travel when the ticket has been booked on an Indian carrier and the booking is ex-India, it said, “If the tickets have been booked during the lockdown period for travel within the lockdown period, in all such cases full refund shall be given by the airlines immediately. This amount shall be passed on immediately by the Agent to the passengers, as the case may be.”

This was being mandated as the airlines were not supposed to book such tickets during the first and second lockdown, it added.

“For all other cases, the airlines shall all endeavour to refund the collected amount to the passenger within 15 days,” it said in its affidavit filed last week.

However, the affidavit said, “If on account of financial distress, if the airlines are not able to do so they shall provide a credit shell equal to the amount of fare collected. This credit shell shall be issued in the name of the passenger who has booked the ticket.”

“The passenger shall be able to consume the credit shell up to 31st March 2021 on any route of his choice. If the passenger wants to buy a ticket of value more than the credit shell, then he can use cash to top it up. If he wants to buy a ticket of value less than the credit shell, he/she can do so and the balance amount of credit shell shall be available to him/her,” the affidavit read.

As one of the advocates on Wednesday suggested that the credit shell should go to the tour operator instead of the passenger, the Bench shot back, "It is the passenger who paid the money. Why should the credit shell go to the operator?"

The petitioner NGO had said both domestic and international airlines were violating the Ministry's order which obliged them to fully refund the amount for tickets cancelled on account of COVID19 lockdown.

Pointing out that instead of a full refund, airlines were providing a credit shell, valid up to one year, the PIL had submitted that failure to refund the full amount collected for tickets owing to cancellation of flights due to restrictions imposed by the government to prevent the spread of COVID-19 violated DGCA's Civil Aviation Requirement, 2008.

It had referred to the Ministry's April 16 Office Memorandum (OM) which directed all airline operators to refund the full amount collected for all tickets booked during the first phase of the lockdown between March 25 and April 14 both for domestic and international bookings.

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