Forum tells Sri Lankan Airlines to pay Rs 1 lakh for not informing flight cancellation

The complainant Ramajayam from KK Nagar had submitted that he along with his family visited Colombo in December 2015. They had four confirmed tickets to Chennai on December 4, 2015, by a flight of Sri Lankan Airlines. However, the tickets were cancelled a day before the scheduled travel without prior information by the airlines. Ramajayam again booked four more tickets to Chennai on December 7, which too met the same fate.

He was forced to reach back via Bengaluru. Aggrieved Ramajayam moved the consumer forum to direct the airlines to pay fare charges (Colombo to Bengaluru), boarding and lodging expenses and compensation for mental agony under the Consumer Protection Act, 1986. Countering this, the airlines submitted that the flights were cancelled since the airport was closed due to bad weather. However, the forum comprising K Jayabalan, president and M Uyirroli Kannan, member directed the airlines to pay the compensation for mental agony caused to the complainant as it is liable for negligence in respect of failure to intimate the cancellation to the passenger.

In another case, two Chennai based realty firms have been directed to pay a compensation of Rs 2 lakh to a buyer as well as return the advance with 12 per cent interest for failing to begin construction of flats even after a lapse of five years of collecting the advance.

Partly allowing the complaint of J Sivaramakrishnan, a resident of Thiruvanmiyur, who had booked a flat in a new project announced by Jeayam Shelters private limited and VIP Housing & Properties- in Adambakkam, the forum directed the firms to repay the advance with 12 per cent interest and pay Rs 2 lakh as compensation for deficiency in service to the buyer.