Forum directs Air India to pay compensation

The Madurai District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum has directed Air India to compensate a complainant for deficiency in service after the national carrier delivered his baggage with a delay of 37 hours.

The complainant, P. Suriyanarayanan, a Chartered Accountant from Madurai, approached the forum seeking compensation for deficiency in service. The complainant said that in 2008 he travelled from Dubai to Chennai in an Air India flight. After landing, the complainant waited for over two hours to collect his baggage from the baggage carousel.

However, to his shock, the authorities informed him that the baggage was not loaded into the flight and it would only reach him a day later via Mumbai. The complainant, without his baggage, had to buy fresh a set of clothes to spend an extra day in the city. When the complainant went to check on the baggage the following day, to his disbelief, he was told that it would take another day for the baggage to arrive.

He had to cancel his railway ticket to Madurai, his home town, due to the extra day he had spent to gather his baggage. He finally travelled to Madurai only after purchasing another air ticket after gathering his baggage.

Taking cognisance of the suffering of the complainant, the forum, comprising president V. Balasundarakumar and members C. Packialakshmi and M. Maraikamalai directed the national carrier to compensate the complainant with ₹30,000 along with the cost of ₹3,000 within a month.