Anantapur: Consumer Court slaps penalty of Rs 50,000 on Indigo Airlines

Anantapur: District Consumer Court has slapped Rs 50,000 penalty on Indigo Airlines for deficiency of services following a complaint lodged by a customer.

One Mohamed Nizamuddin, the customer of Indigo Airlines complained that on December 28, 2020 he purchased the airlines ticket from Hyderabad to Dubai with Rs 10,620.

The travelling date was January 3, 2021. On December 31, 2020 he had even underwent a COVID test at the Government General Hospital and tested negative. He was given a certificate of COVID negative on January 1, 2021. On January 3, the date of his journey when he went to the Airport the airlines supervisor rejected the certificate on ground of lack of official stamp and signature on the certificate.

When he informed that the computer generated certificate will not have signature or official staff, he was denied permission to travel on the airlines. The customer Mohamed despite his pleas was denied permission to travel. He had to make last minute efforts to secure another airlines ticket and travelled to his destination. On January 4, 2021 he sent a legal notice to Indigo Airlines and lodged a complaint with the District Consumer Court, Anantapur.

Chief Judge M Srilatha along with her colleagues B Gopinath and D Grace Mary summoned Indigo officials who argued that they followed international stipulations that the report should be signed by the competent authority affixing the hospital seal. The officials told the court that despite the customer's failure in cancelling his ticket 3 days in advance as per stipulation, he was offered 50 per cent travel fare return.