BENGALURU: A city-based consumer forum ordered Udaan India Pvt Ltd, a visa facilitation company, to pay over Rs 1.25 lakh for not getting transit visas for clients abroad.
According to the order, Udaan India Private Limited has to pay Rs 65,188 with 12 per cent interest from March 4, 2018 to the complainants — Payal Kesharwani and Manju Keshari — residents of Marathahalli. This amount is towards purchasing fresh tickets from Madrid to Mumbai to Bengaluru. In addition to this, Udaan has to pay Rs 60,000. It includes Rs 25,000 for inconvenience caused, Rs 25,000 for damages and Rs 10,000 for litigation expenses.
In the order, the Bangalore Additional District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, comprising president H R Srinivas and member D Suresh observed that it’s quite natural that the complainants have suffered humiliation. It also highlighted how the complainants suffered both physically and mentally. According to the complaint, they availed the service to obtain Schengen visa to go to Spain by paying Rs 17,050 on January 27, 2018. They booked the ticket from Madrid (Spain) to Mumbai via London, where they had to change the aircraft.
However, Udaan never intimated to apply for a transit visa through UK, as their return flight to Mumbai from Madrid was via London. Since they did not have a transit visa, they were denied boarding in Madrid on March 4, 2018 and their luggage was taken for transportation.
“It was very embarrassing, that too in a foreign country to be without a visa. There was confusion at the airport also as the checked-in baggage was not off loaded and as a result we had to spend that night in a Madrid hotel without our luggage. It was frustrating,” the complainants claimed. The complainants have also stated that due to the negligence and carelessness of Udaan, they could not return to India and Bengaluru in time. They had to spend Rs 70,000 to book new flight tickets to India via Brussels. As in the European country, no transit visa is required for a room at a hotel. The complainants landed at Mumbai on March 6, 2018 and reached Bengaluru on the same day.