The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission of Chandigarh has asked an airlines to pay Rs 30,000 as compensation and litigation cost to a city resident for luggage that was damaged at New Delhi airport.

Ekta Sehgal of Chandigarh stated in complaint that she travelled on the flight of the Emirates Airlines from Accra (capital of Ghana) to Dubai and thereafter from Dubai to New Delhi. She said that she had checked in on October 16, 2022, as per schedule, and was carrying two bags, one green bag and one blue bag. At the time of departure, the combined weight of the bags was 43 kilograms.

Around 8.20 pm on October 17, 2023 , the flight landed in New Delhi. After waiting for some time, she found that her bags were not there on the airport conveyor belt. After she contacted the authorities, she was told to look over in a deserted corner where some of the luggage was kept. The complainant found both the bags there and found them tampered with and partially open.

“The bags were in a damaged condition. The bags were partially open and the zippers were not drawn together. On opening the said bags, complainant found that her clothes including her delicate items had been frisked and the entire contents of the bags were upside down. From the condition of the bags, it was clearly inferred that someone had forcibly opened the bags by breaking the locks of the bags and then, ruffled through the bag’s contents and extracted the items to their liking. During the inspection of the bags and evaluation of the weight, it was found that the weight of the bags had reduced to 39.2 kg combined against the departure weight of 43 kgs and 4 kg of items were missing from the bags,” alleged the complainant.

Sehgal alleged that many articles were found missing from the bags. She repeatedly requested the airlines to compensate her for the harassment faced by her but the airlines only offered $200 to settle her claim.

Festive offer

The Emirates Airlines in reply submitted that upon receiving the complaint, their staff at the New Delhi airport took immediate action to understand the cause of such happening to the extent possible. Thereafter, the staff generated a property irregularity report in their system, raised by the complainant and the staff at the New Delhi airport, also requested the complainant to provide a copy of the invoices against the missing items as reported in order to enable them to review and process the claim as required. However, the complainant failed to do so even upon multiple requests.

It was said that the airlines as a goodwill gesture was open to consider the complainant’s claim subject to assessment of proof of loss/invoices of the contents allegedly pilfered. In the absence of any proof of loss or supporting evidence, the airlines partially allowed the claim of the complainant bearing in mind the inconvenience caused and the fact that the complainant is a regular flyer with the airlines. Therefore, on November 7, 2022, the complainant was offered an amount of $200 as settlement for the claim, even though the complainant failed to provide any purchase receipts or supporting documents as requested.

On hearing the contentions of both the parties, the commission observed that “certainly in such like situation the complainant has undergone a lot of harassment and embarrassment as she did not get her luggage back from the airlines for a long time and when the same was received back some articles were found missing therefrom and the chain of the bags were found broken which caused immense harassment to the complainant. Hence there is negligence on the part of the Emirates Airlines.”

On offering $ 200 for settlement of the complaint for the damage of the bag, the commission said that as per the written statement of the airlines, it is mentioned that the complainant is bound by Montreal Convention.

The commission said that as per rule, the liability of the airlines will be limited to 1288 SDR for damage to checked or unchecked baggage.

The commission also asked the Emirates Airlines to pay Rs 20,000 to the complainant as compensation for causing mental agony and harassment to her and to pay Rs 10,000 as costs of litigation.

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