SC issues notice to Civil Aviation Ministry on a plea seeking a refund on air tickets cancelled due to lockdown

THE Supreme Court today issued notice to the Ministry of Civil Aviation on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by NGO Pravasi Legal Cell seeking a direction to the airlines both domestic and international for a full refund of the ticket cancelled due to announcement of nationwide lockdown.

"It does seem arbitrary that refunds are being issued only to those who booked tickets after the lockdown was enforced. The relief should be entitled to everyone whose flights were cancelled due to lockdown", remarked Justice S K Kaul who was on the bench along with Justices N V Ramana and B R Gavai.

In its petition, the NGO contended that the Ministry of Civil Aviation's order dated April 16 directing the airlines to refund only those tickets that were booked during the lockdown period and left out the vast majority of passengers who had booked tickets before the flight were banned, was like treating the equals unequally in violation of the fundamental rights of citizens.

The petitioner argued that airlines, instead of providing a full refund of the amount collected for cancelled tickets, are providing a credit shell, valid up to one year.

Read the order of Ministry of Civil Aviation here:

[pdfviewer]http://theleaflet.in/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Circular-16.4.2020-1.pdf[/pdfviewer]