Air Tickets SC disposes of pleas seeking direction on refund of air tickets booked during lockdown
New Delhi/UNI: The Supreme Court on Thursday disposed of a batch of petitions that sought direction on refund of air tickets booked during the lockdown after it accepted the scheme of credit shells, as proposed by the DGCA, valid till March 31.
A bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan and also comprising Justices R S Reddy and M R Shah, passed the verdict on a batch of petitions seeking appropriate directions on the airfare refund case booked on Covid-19 pandemic lockdown.
About air tickets booked through agents, refund will happen through them only, the apex court said, in its verdict today.
The top court also accepted the Directorate General Of Civil Aviation (DGCA) proposal on refunds for air tickets booked during lockdown.
The Supreme Court ruled that the refund shell for air tickets to be used only through agents, if sale is made via them.
Ministry of Civil Aviation to issue compliance notification, the Apex Court said today in its Judgement. The petitioners are: NGO, Pravasi Legal Cell, through Advocate Jose Abraham and many others.
Today's judgment by the SC approving DGCA guidelines in toto will benefit thousands of air passengers whose hard earned money remained stuck in air tickets cancelled owing to lockdown.
"The passenger who has booked a ticket during the lockdown period (from 25th March, 2020 to 24th May, 2020) for travel during lockdown period and the airline has received payment for booking of air ticket for travel during the same period, for both domestic and international air travel and the refund is sought by the passenger against that booking being cancelled, the airline shall refund the full amount collected without any cancellation charges," the bench of the apex court today, said, in its judgement.
The refund shall be made within a period of three weeks from the date of cancellation, the apex court said.
"If the tickets have been booked during the lockdown period through a travel agent for a travel within the lockdown period, in all such cases full refund shall be given by the airlines immediately," the bench of the apex court today said in its verdict.
On such refund, the amount shall be passed on immediately by the agent to the passengers, the apex court said.
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