HYDERABAD: Probably the youngest person to approach a legal forum, a city-based toddler went to the consumer forum after her luggage was misplaced by an airline operator. The 2-year-old was travelling from Srinagar to Hyderabad. ‘Mental agony and inconvenience’ were cited as the reasons for the complaint that was lodged on her behalf by her mother.The forum ruled in the toddler, Anya Shah’s favour, and she was awarded a compensation of Rs 25,000. In the complaint filed in 2016, Shah alleged that her luggage, weighing 24 kilograms, was misplaced in Hyderabad. They were on a vacation in Srinagar.
Milk bottles, milk powder, sweaters, baby napkins, and clothes besides memorabilia were part of the luggage. But it could not be traced at the terminus in Hyderabad after landing. After a complaint was lodged, the airline operator agreed to compensate the passenger, as per norms, with `8,400 cash and `3,000 worth gift voucher.
But the complainant, represented by her mother, rejected the offer claiming that the actual luggage was far more expensive. However, after five weeks, the airlines informed the complainant that the luggage was found in a hotel at Gachibowli and directed her to collect it. When she requested it to be sent to her as it was the airlines that misplaced the luggage, the airlines rejected the request.
Meanwhile, the airlines claimed that the complaint raised was not maintainable as the terms and conditions laid down under Carriage by Air Act 1972 don’t qualify the reason. It further held that the amount offered — `350 per kg of lost luggage — according to its estimation, was sufficient.
But the consumer forum favoured the complainant and rejected the plea of the airlines. It held that the airlines should pay Rs 20,000 for causing ‘mental agony, stress, inconvenience, trauma, and hardship’, and Rs 5,000 towards court charges.